Does Sussex County have a politicized police force?

The Republican primary to nominate a candidate for the open 24th District Assembly seat being vacated by Alison Littell McHose had a lot of strange elements to it.  None stranger was candidate Marie Bilik's attempts to politicize the police departments of Sussex County.

It began a few days before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, when Bilik campaign chairman Molly Whilesmith sent an email to police chiefs asking them to mobilize their departments in opposition to Freeholder Gail Phoebus, a candidate for Assembly.  At a Blairstown debate, Phoebus had suggested that some police chiefs received excessively large payouts and that some police officers were able to access their pension benefits too early. 

Both positions are perfectly defensible -- particularly in a Republican primary.  In 2013, Assemblyman Gary Chiusano -- then a candidate for Surrogate -- took a much harder line on police pensions and went on to crush a well-funded primary opponent by 20 percentage points. 

But Freeholder Phoebus went to great lengths to claw back her statements.  She personally apologized to individual police chiefs and officers, and she sent out at least two written apologies that we know of.  But apparently, it wasn't enough.  Embracing the idea that having an enemy is better than having a friend, some of the cops went all out to stick it up the poop-chute.  Perhaps they're just those kind of guys.

Watchdog has learned that Whilesmith -- who is a paid representative of Concord Engineering/ Energy, as well as an elected Sparta councilwoman -- organized a meeting of seven police chiefs, for the purpose of coordinating campaign operations against Phoebus.  At a PBA dinner held in Sparta, Bilik was the only candidate invited.  And there was a Facebook campaign organized to get police to vote for Bilik, along with Phoebus running mate Parker Space.  They even made a video ad to aid their efforts.

We've learned that the Phoebus camp was somewhat perplexed by the behavior of the predominately male members, refusing to accept the apology of a woman, more determined to make threats and carry them out.  One memo, obtained by Watchdog, referenced polling numbers on this issue and closed with the term "Assmonkeys", whatever that means.

In the end, this campaign appears to have helped Freeholder Phoebus, whose numbers were much closer to those of incumbent Parker Space than expected.  This is evident when compared to the last contested primary for an open Assembly seat, in 2007.

2007                                                                          2015

McHose (incumbent)        9,600 (35.5%)         Space (incumbent)            6,533 (40%)

Chiusano                               7,705 (28.5%)         Phoebus                    6,048 (37%)

Zellman                                 5,701 (21%)             Bilik                            1,696 (10%)

Woods                                   3,950 (14.5%)         Orr                             2,010 (12%)

Memo to the people who jumped on this scheme:  If you are going to publicly screw an elected official, don't come back with numbers like these.  Apparently however, Phoebus is a genuine friend of the police and a significant contributor to their causes.  She has stated that she looks forward to representing them in Trenton. 

That's a pity, as far as Watchdog is concerned.  We can't say we agree with her.

The bigger issue here is the politicization of the police.  Do we really want police chiefs behaving like party bosses?  Do we really want ward heelers with guns?  Instead of sobriety checks, how about traffic stops to check your voter ID?  Does anybody think having political cops is a good idea?

If the police want to become politicians, they should leave the force and run for office.  Law enforcement and the judiciary should be party blind if they want to maintain their integrity and the public's trust.

Bilik campaign attacks Alison McHose

In 2003, Alison Littell McHose gave up a full-time job to serve the people of the 24th Legislative District.  Legislators receive only a part-time salary of $49,000. 

During the 12 years she's held office, McHose has become known as an independent conservative voice for reform in Trenton -- crossing the aisle to work with reformers of both parties to pass legislation like the Party Democracy Act.  Time and again, reforms in Trenton began with McHose's lone voice.

 

In January, McHose announced that she would be stepping aside and would not be running for re-election.  The reason for her departure was that her two sons are approaching college age so she had decided to work full-time again as the administrator of Franklin Borough.  McHose and her husband, a U.S. Army Sergeant who served three tours in the war on terror and just returned home from Afghanistan, also have a young daughter.

Marie Bilik's campaign chairman is Molly Whilesmith, a Sparta councilwoman and former mayor.  Until recently, Whilesmith was a Democrat.  Now she claims to be a Republican, so we were surprised when she posted a link on her Facebook page to a letter to the editor by a leftist Democrat operative that attacks Alison McHose for seeking full-time work to stay close to home.

The writer takes a reform championed by Alison McHose and Parker Space and then lies about it.  McHose and Space successfully pushed legislation that ended the ability of an elected office holder from retiring and collecting a state pension while collecting a public salary.  It closed the loophole on double-dipping so that an elected official can no longer do both.

The writer is a clever liar who conflates this reform with an elected official having a second working income from a public source.  The loophole McHose and Space closed has to do with pension income and not holding a second source of public income.   That would take separate legislation and all such attempts have been blocked by the Democrats who control the Legislature.

In Alison McHose's case, she is not running for re-election and is temporarily holding two public positions, as full-time administrator and part-time legislator, only long enough for the people to choose her replacement at a primary held on June 2nd.  As was reported in the Herald and elsewhere, McHose had wanted to resign from the Assembly  immediately upon taking her new position.  However, with memories of the controversies surrounding Gary Chiusano's departure from the Assembly in 2013 and the opposition to county conventions voiced by the Herald and others, McHose decided to remain in office until the voters had their say in an election.

For this McHose is being attacked by Molly Whilesmith, the chairman of Marie Bilik's campaign.

Many elected officials do have a second working income from a public source.  Take the Bilik campaign's Molly Whilesmith as an example.  She has attended public meetings in municipality after municipality and lobbied on behalf of a corporation that sells its services to county and local governments.  In her work, Whilesmith is often accompanied by Wendy Molner, another Bilik campaign person and the Vice President for Government Relations of Concord Engineering/ Concord Energy.  Official government minutes are available off the Internet showing the role the two play.

Curiously however, while Molly Whilesmith's relationship with this energy vendor is demonstrable from local government documents, she failed to record it on her state mandated Financial Disclosure Statements for 2014 or 2015, covering her activities as Mayor, Member of Council, and Member of the Planning Board.

Looks like Mayor Whilesmith has some explaining to do.

Update on Friday, May 1, 2015 at 11:27AM by Sussex County Watchdog

We got this great comment from a Warren County Republican.  Please excuse the expletives.

I wish these people would make up their f**king minds. 

Everybody was pissed off over the idea of a convention choosing her successor.  Alison wanted to leave in January but nobody wanted her to leave.  Now this as*hole is attacking her.

I wish I could vote for her again.  These people are s*ck. 

The political education of Phil Crabb

When he was first appointed to the Freeholder Board in Sussex County, Phil Crabb was a self-proclaimed "moderate" Republican, following the way of Glen Vetrano and Sue Zellman.  And while it was his friendship with Hal Wirths that got him the job, Crabb was never part of the Wally Wirths' conservative crowd -- Crabb was a Bob Littell guy. 

Crabb's appointment coincided with a new political paradigm in Sussex County.  In 2007, longtime District 24 Senator Bob Littell decided not to run for re-election.  While conservative on issues like guns and abortion, Littell was an old-school moderate Republican.  He found consensus with the Democrats and avoided partisan rhetoric. 

In 2007, the Littell wing of the Sussex County GOP was faced with a dilemma and a choice.  The dilemma was popular District 24 Assemblyman Guy Gregg, a well-known conservative from Morris County, who wanted to become Sussex County's Senator.  To face him, the Littell forces had to choose between two well-qualified Freeholders:  moderate Glen Vetrano or conservative Steve Oroho.

We all know who got the nod and so began the rebranding of the Sussex County GOP into an organization with an explicitly "conservative" message.  The REAL CONSERVATIVE TEAM of Steve Oroho, Alison Littell McHose, Gary Chiusano, Hal Wirths, and Jeff Parrott carried the day on June 5, 2007.  A year later and Senator Oroho, Assemblywoman McHose, and Assemblyman Chiusano were recognized statewide as conservative leaders in the legislature.  Phyllis Schlafly called Bob Littell's daughter "New Jersey's Sarah Palin".  Bob Littell's successors had won by adopting the message of Wally Wirths.

There were some who were uncomfortable with this rebranding, Phil Crabb among them.  They faulted the political consultant team of Ed Traz and Bill Winkler who were responsible for the 2007 REAL CONSERVATIVE TEAM campaign message and accused them of over-stressing the "conservative" brand.  They criticized the connection to conservative firebrand Steve Lonegan and in return were sniped at on Facebook by Lonegan satellite Rick Shaftan.

But as election victory after election victory piled up, the moderates slowly came round.  The 2012 victory of conservative Christian candidate Dennis Mudrick, recruited by moderate Glen Vetrano, was in many ways a public act of surrender by the moderates.  A recognition that they could no longer elect one of their own.

In last year's Republican primary the HOMETOWN CONSERVATIVE  TEAM romped to victory and the final act of Sussex County's GOP "moderates" was to dutifully join the effort to elect conservative Steve Lonegan to the United States Senate.  After Lonegan was embraced by Governor Chris Christie, he was no longer the "radical" he had been on the lips of Sussex County moderates.  They rushed to embrace him and enthusiastically used their new conservative connections to scrub away their worn out moderate skins.

Which brings us to Freeholder Phil Crabb, the last of the moderates.  He sent out a very well done direct mail piece this week.  In it, he described his tenure on the Freeholder Board as "conservative", his successes on the Freeholder Board as "conservative", his leadership as "conservative", and he himself as a "conservative".

Somewhere, Traz and Winkler are smiling.