The Sussex Democrats are idiots

Here is why the Sussex Democrats will never elect another Freeholder in Sussex County and so will never matter.  At the agitation of Sussex County Freeholders Richard Vohden and Phil Crabb, the County formally asked for an ethics investigation against fellow Freeholder George Graham, because Graham had allegedly let the taxpaying public know about details of Freeholder Board business that Vohden and Crabb wanted kept from the public.

That's right, Freeholder Graham believes the public has the right to know what is going on in the public body that collects and spends its property tax dollars.  Vohden and Crabb like to keep the public in the dark (like they did when they negotiated the solar deal and then passed a bailout that will cost taxpayers millions).  The favorite means used by Vohden and Crabb to blind the public to their activities is called "executive session,"  they over-use something that should be used sparingly and only for the most legally sensitive matters. 

In theory, "executive session" should only be used by a public body to discuss sensitive personnel and legal matters.  But under the directorships (more like dictatorships) of Vohden and then Crabb, executive session has been used to shut the public out of discussions they should know about.  They end up learning about it too late, when the bill comes, and often after what was covered up turns out to be a scam.

Now if you think that the Democrats are rallying to make hay out of this and, more importantly, to make themselves relevant around the kitchen tables of Sussex County, then you would be wrong.  Instead of focusing on a bread and butter issue like transparency, the Sussex County Democrats have jumped into foreign policy and joined with a group that is taking Russian President Putin's side against the United States.

In correspondence advertising the Sussex Democrats' December 5th rally in Newton, a neo-Marxist Group called New Jersey Peace Action claimed that making the Obama Justice Department and the FBI responsible for ensuring that no terrorists slip through using the cover of Syrian refugees (as happened in the Paris attacks that murdered 130 innocent people, mainly young people attending a rock concert) would "effectively block Syrian refugees from entering the United States."  Last time we checked, the administration of President Barack Obama wasn't anti-refugee, so claiming that an Obama appointee would be so tough on refugee applications for residency is pretty darned remarkable and says a lot about just who this "Peace Action" group thinks is coming into the United States.

In the same correspondence, the Marxists who the Sussex County Democrats have chosen to align themselves with make this boldfaced lie:  "As we know, the majority of Syrian refugees are widowed women and children."

Here are the facts, directly from the federal agency responsible for refugee resettlement:  "Since the Paris terror attacks on November 13, the State Department has admitted 132 Syrian refugees into the United States, and all 132 are Sunni Muslims.  No Christian, Druze, Shi’ite, Alawite, or member of any other religious minority in Syria has been admitted over that period, according to data from the State Department Refugee Processing Center.  The majority of the 132 Syrian refugees permitted to resettle in the U.S. since November 13 (72) are male, the minority female (60).   Of the 132 total, 39 (29.5 percent) have been men between the ages of 14 and 50."

And true to its membership in the "Blame America First" league, the "Peace Action" nuts make this claim in their correspondence:  "Given the amount of damage the United States has done in the region, this is partially our responsibility." 

So America is responsible for the refugee crisis in Syria because President Obama opposes the barbaric regime in power there?   Wow, that sounds a lot like the position taken by the murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad, Dictator of Syria and Commander-in-Chief of its murderous and rapacious armed forces.   It is also the position taken by that regime's primary supporter -- President Vladimir Putin of Russia. 

In aligning itself with New Jersey Peace Action, the Sussex County Democrats have aligned themselves with career dirt-bags who oppose the patriotic American men and women of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.  During a time when terrorists target military recruiting offices and murder the brave young people who serve there, these idiots are out protesting those same recruiting offices.  Here they are protesting an American military recruitment office in Elizabeth, New Jersey: 

The spineless idiots of Peace Action reject the American eagle and take as their mascot the puffin -- a fat, frightened bird species who fear to come out of their holes lest the black backed gulls eat them.  No kidding, the gulls grab a puffin and shake it so furiously that they turn it inside out.  That is their vision for America:  Inside-out.  To ensure peace, they prescribe slavery. 

Shame on the Sussex County Democrats for ignoring kitchen table issues and for instead climbing into bed with these America-blamers.

Lots of Questions for the Freeholder candidates

Tomorrow evening the New Jersey Herald will be holding a public debate between the four candidates for Sussex County Freeholder.  Voters will get to select two.  The candidates are:  Jonathan Rose, Republican; Carl Lazzaro, Republican; Harvey Roseff, Independent; and Robert Walsh, Independent.  The Sussex County Democrats did not come up with a candidate for Freeholder this year.

The debate is being held at Newton High School.  It begins at 6pm and will take about an hour.

Sussex County is in transition.  With its tax base shrinking and job hunters moving away, there are a lot of issues that will have to be tackled by the next Freeholder Board.  The solar scandal exposed the extent to which cronyism and back room dealing has corrupted the process of government in Sussex County. To address these issues moving forward, we need a county ethics committee, the registration of county lobbyists, and a clear ethics policy that every elected official, employee, and vendor signs off on.

Other issues that need to be discussed include the future of transportation in the county -- both in terms of improved roads and bridges with quicker repair schedules and mass transportation to points outside the county and within.  How we address this will determine whether or not we will have the infrastructure to grow and provide jobs for our future. 

Solid waste is another.  The county has a great asset in its solid waste facility but past Freeholder Boards have wanted to sell it off to politically connected operators at a bargain basement price.  We shouldn't allow it to become the next homestead nursing home sale -- with both the asset and the income, and now even the windfall, gone. 

Transitional healthcare sounded good but it has to be re-examined to see whether or not it is a good deal for taxpayers.  And part of that examination will have to be the relationships between health care corporations and county officials both past and present. 

The county's 9-1-1 program has also ended up being less than advertised.  We went from a program that worked to one that still works but costs a whole lot more.  Some say a million dollars a year more, with half of Sussex County actually paying twice for the service.  

Sussex County's solar debacle began as a sole bid contract.  Sole bid contracts have become a usual and customary way of doing business in Sussex County.  The biding process must be made more open -- both in transparency of process and in advertising bids. 

These are just a few of the many issues that you need to ask questions about tomorrow evening.  No doubt you have some of your own.  Please take an hour out of your week and attend the debate, ask questions, and take back your county.

The rest of this week we will be looking at each of the four candidates for Freeholder, so stay tuned.

Those Dysfunctional Democrats of Sussex County

Does anyone remember the last Democrat elected to the Assembly from Sussex County?  His name was Robert C. Shelton Jr. and he was elected to the Assembly on November 6, 1973 -- in the middle of the Watergate scandal that consumed many a Republican that year.  Back then, Sussex County was part of the 15th Legislative District, a much more competitive district.  Nevertheless, with the resignation of President Richard Nixon and a little time, the District went back to having an all Republican delegation after the November 1975 election. 

On the other hand, the local Democrat Party has been successful in electing county candidates to the Freeholder Board by focusing on local issues, cronyism, and running populist, good-government campaigns.  As late as January 2003, the Democrats held a seat on the Freeholder Board in Sussex County.

This year has been a year of upheaval in Sussex County politics.  Charges of cronyism, the misuse of taxpayers' money, the solar project scandal.  A great opportunity for an outsider party.  You might even say it is tailor made for the Democrats.  So who are they running?  Nobody, of course.

Instead, they are focusing on the Assembly, where statewide, Democrats are in control and are blamed for failing to address the highest property taxes in America, jobs, foreclosure, homelessness, child poverty, spending, debt, crime, over-regulation, and the worst business climate in America.  The Republicans have been fighting for rural and suburban taxpayers.  The Democrats support the most inequitable education funding system in America -- and the reason for those highest in the nation property taxes.  The voters of rural Sussex County know that voting in the Democrats would be like giving two more seats to the urban machine bosses who underwrite their campaigns. 

You have to hand it to those Democrats.  Instead of going for a seat they held just over a decade ago, they'll go for one they haven't held in 40 years.  If you were a first time voter who voted for the last Democrat to represent Sussex County in the Assembly, you are celebrating your 60th birthday this year.

But it gets worse for this gang.  Just two seats are up in the Assembly this year.  Both are held by Republicans.  So you would think that the Democrats would figure out that to even have a chance, you would run just two Democrats against the two Republicans.  No, not these Democrats.  They are running three candidates against two.  That means that in the race for a plurality, their votes get split three ways instead of two.  

Why?  Because they are crazy.  As the great comedian Lewis Black said, "They are stone cold f**k nuts!"  And they are.

They went out of their way to recruit a so-called Green candidate -- actually a not-in-my-backyard suburban Marxist, but let's leave that for another day -- to be their third running mate.  He'd be a Democrat, except that only two Democrats can be nominated, so he's running as a kind of third Democrat, under the banner of the Green Party.  And how many of them have ever been elected to the Assembly in New Jersey?  Ummm... none, nada, nothing, nobody, zip, zero, zilch, bupkis, jack dick.

And guess what?  This brilliant plan is already reaping dividends.  Yep.  Instead of endorsing the two Democrats, the Sierra Club endorsed the Green candidate. As if the Highlands Act hasn't driven enough people out of the county, looking for work.  You know those cities need drinking water and somebody has to pay for all the land that's been locked up to keep it pure and -- so say the Democrats (and so scream the Greens) -- it is going to be the taxpayers of Sussex County who pay.

Last night, the three running mates showed up at a Freeholder meeting.  Yes, the Assembly candidates went to a Freeholder meeting (far be it from their party to actually run candidates for Freeholder).  They brought along a ragtag band of YouTube atheists, a satanist, and the sort of folks you see on the sitcom Portlandia. 

Oh, and the redoubtable Bill Weightman -- who should be a freeholder now except he ran for the wrong office too.  They all came out to defend that corporate giant in health care delivery (with taxpayers money) to low-income women, Planned Parenthood. 

Now Planned Parenthood has been the subject of a number of controversial videos in which their own people are describing what appears to be their trafficking in human body parts.  I mean the words are actually coming out of their mouths.  Nobody has alleged dubbing.  Their mouths are flapping and words are coming out.  And they don't want to be responsible for those words.

Anyone who has ever seen a poll in Sussex County knows that Planned Parenthood wasn't all that popular with voters before the videos.  And those videos haven't been an image enhancer.  So, of course, the three running mates show up to organize around this issue.  Why?  Take from Lewis Black: "They are crazy. They are stone cold f**k nuts!"

The reason cronyism exists in Sussex County, the reason that we get solar scandals in the first place, is because the Democrats aren't so much a party as they are a self-hurt group.  It's like they sit around and figure out how to best stick it up their own backsides.  Maybe it's match fixing?  Maybe they are taking money from the Republicans to be so bad?

The burden of opposition has ended up falling on the shoulders of citizen activists like Harvey Rosseff, of Byram, who is mounting an independent campaign for Freeholder.  And what does it say about a party when a single individual can pull off a candidacy for Freeholder and a whole party can't?