Stumbling John McCann peddles his b.s. in Paramus

Candidate John McCann reminds us of a wax figure that's been in the sun too long.  The guy is limp, droopy.  He looks like he's melting.  Sleepy and shambolic is very uninspiring.

Before stopping by Sussex County a day after the election (he skipped the November 5th rally hosted by Sussex GOP Chairman Jerry Scanlan and Steve Lonegan) Democrat ex-pat McCann was at an event in Paramus, in Bergen County.  There he let loose with some major whoppers -- first and foremost that the NRCC (the National Republican Congressional Committee) was not supporting Steve Lonegan in his race to unseat incumbent Democrat Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

McCann apparently missed this press release from the NRCC:

There has been a lot of media coverage about this but McCann, who lacks even a Facebook page, seems to have missed it.  Either that or he was just bullshitting again.

Who is John McCann?

He is the brainstorm of what remains of GOP bossism in Bergen County.  The Bergen County GOP, fresh from their latest in a long string of losses in both primaries and general elections, have abjectly surrendered to the point that they now believe that the only way forward is to formally turn their county organization over to the Democrats, and to rest comfortably under the wing of the Democrat Party.  So they accept the Democrats' terms and lawyer John McCann, who was a patronage employee with the County's elected Democrat Sheriff, is their chosen candidate for Congress. 

With John McCann, the Bergen GOP will appear to have found a candidate to oppose incumbent Democrat Josh Gottheimer.  In reality, McCann's candidacy will be a hollow one, lacking financial resources or contrast with the Democrat.  It will serve the Democrats' will and cement Democrat Gottheimer into a district that no Democrat should hold.

John McCann is one of the Bergen GOP's "hollow men" -- having surfaced to run for the Assembly in 1995, he was crushed, fell to earth, and burrowed into the moist manure of crony politics.  Here he existed as a kind of chrysalis, without thought, ideology, or principles.  The money doesn't allow such things.  There are lots of "hollow men" about.  The Bergen GOP could not fill a room without them.

We are the hollow men
    We are the stuffed men
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when
    We whisper together
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass
    Or rats' feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar
   
    Shape without form, shade without colour,
    Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

    ...Behaving as the wind behaves

At the very beginning of conservative Scott Garrett's career in Congress, at the very beginning, John McCann attempted to go from pupa to butterfly.  But it was to oppose both Scott Garrett and Gerry Cardinale in the primary because, so John McCann said, they were "too conservative."

In that race, McCann -- a self-described follower of the ideology of Democrat-turned Republican-turned Democrat Arlen Specter -- assured anyone who cared to listen that the only way Republicans could hold on to CD05 was to nominate a "moderate".  McCann spelled that out as someone who was liberal on abortion, the social issues, and the Second Amendment.  McCann was wrong.  A solid conservative won -- while McCann's campaign collapsed because he couldn't raise the money or support to sustain it.  That was in 2002.  Does anyone really believe that the GOP has gone Left since then?

John McCann's candidacy is the end game of the Bergen County GOP.  Their intentions and his candidacy promise to end the game and to deliver New Jersey's 5th Congressional District into Democrat hands for what might as well be an eternity in politics.  And for what?  Perhaps the Bergen bosses will accrue some considerations, and one more piece will be removed from the already almost blank board.  One less contention to squabble over. 

This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    This is the way the world ends
    Not with a bang but a whimper.

Well, not on our watch.

Lawsuit against Gray details fraudulent practices

David Gray started his campaign for Freeholder under a cloud.  He is being sued under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act.  The plaintiff, Juliette Bresnahan, worked full-time as the office manager of David Gray's law firm.  Here are some details from the case:

". . . around mid-October 2015, Gray informed Bresnahan that he received a tax bill for around $62,000.  Gray indicated that he was unsure how he would pay this bill. . .

. . . Gray's directive was aimed at intentionally falsifying and fraudulently increasing the bills to generate more revenue to the firm to extricate it from its current financial predicament."

Read the entire complaint against Gray here.

David Gray then made the mistake of turning his campaign over to a woman who used it to take personal revenge on people she has long hated.  Yesterday's email attack on Kelly Hart is only the latest in a series of toxic exchanges between this woman and individuals she hates in Sussex County. 

Hart is the daughter of the late Mayor of Hardyston, Ken Kievit, a very generous supporter of the Sussex County Republican Party and its candidates.  Hart's mother has continued the family's tradition of generous support to the party and Republican candidates at all levels of government.  To illustrate how sick and personal this is, note that this woman was once a friend of Hart's family but, after a sordid falling out, is no longer.  Apparently she resented Hart for the same reasons that older, fading women sometimes resent younger ones. 

Indeed, this woman has often resented younger women -- especially younger women with children, for some odd reason -- and even viciously attacked Alison Littell McHose on the blogs, adding McHose to her list of victims.

Hart has been the victim of poison pen letters sent through the United States mail (that federal authorities attempted to trace).  These illegal letters used the exact same topic and the exact same language that the Gray-Gorman campaign used in yesterday's email. 

David Gray has allowed this woman to pollute his campaign.  Indeed, the Gray-Gorman campaign and its supporters have been attacking Kelly Hart, her family,  and her children for months in emails and on websites.  Yesterday's email was only the latest violence done to Hart, her family, and her children.

From all the attention she's getting from Gray-Gorman, you could be forgiven for thinking Kelly Hart's name was on the ballot.  It isn't, and that is what makes this so sick, David Gray has allowed one of his supporters to turn his campaign into her personal masturbation ritual. It really is psycho.

Instead of focusing their attacks on the people they are running against -- their opponents -- the Gray and Gorman campaign is pursuing the personal vendetta that one woman has for another.  Real sick stuff and shame on Gray and Gorman for being a party to it.

Cheers for Sussex County Republican Party Chairman Jerry Scanlan for calling out this bad behavior.

Cheers for Sussex County Republican State Committeewoman Jill Space for standing up for  Kelly Hart.

"Back Room" Vohden

Beware the misinformation.  Freeholder Richard Vohden is trying to call the decision to investigate the bailout of the Sussex solar scam a "backroom deal".

This is the same Freeholder Vohden who for the last five years has supported every backroom deal hatched by Rich Zeoli or Phil Crabb or John Eskilson.  Case in point -- the decision in January 2013 to allow the then County Attorney to go from being an outside vendor to being a full-time county employee with benefits, just in time for him to get a nice pension bump that the taxpayers will pay for the rest of his natural life.

Who got advance warning of that deal when it popped up on the first day of business of the new Freeholder Board?  Who got to debate the merits of that scam?  In fact, a bullying Freeholder Vohden explained that it was not job of elected Freeholders to question the contracts put before them by County Executive "Boss" Eskilson, it was only their job to ratify them.

Beware the misinformation.  The entire Solar scam was a series of backroom deals notable for their extreme lack of transparency.  And for the five years that Vohden and his ideological storm troopers have controlled the Freeholder Board with shouts of "Boss Eskilson uber alles" they consistently shouted down any attempt at reform or open government.

The "shrunken heads" are attempting to blame the Sussex County Republican Committee headed by Chairman Jerry Scanlan and State Senator Steve Oroho (R-24).  This is a calculated lie and an attempt at misdirection.  

They should know that it was Morris County Republican politicians who came into Sussex County and who sold the solar scam to gullible Sussex County.  Beware the misinformation.