Dave Gray praises Oroho's consultant

Poor candidate for freeholder Dave Gray.  He and his running mate need to work on their inter-candidate communication skills.  First, Gray reached out to Bill Winkler, long time consultant to the Littell family and to Bob Littell's successor, Senator Steve Oroho.  Gray asked Winkler to run his campaign. While Gray and Winkler were discussing it, Gray's running mate -- the bodacious and ever flavorful Mz. Kathleen Gorman -- started doing a very public dump on Winkler.  Gray was too late in restraining his teammate (she had already started).  End of discussion. 

But it didn't end there.  Gorman recruited the ridiculous Annie Sprinkle and together they made war on old Wee Willy Winkler.  This prompted Wee Willy to write a letter to the New Jersey Herald, causing further attacks.  Here's that letter:

Mate not heeding the warning

Posted: Apr. 5, 2016 12:01 am Updated: Apr. 6, 2016 6:19 pm

Editor:

In a comment posted under Sunday's column by Rob Jennings, candidate for freeholder Kathleen Gorman warned readers against "well paid political advisors" (the emphasis is hers). I wonder if she realizes that her own running mate, David Gray, personally contacted me on several occasions by telephone (I still have a voice mail he left me, if anyone cares to listen) with a view to hiring me to manage their campaign for freeholder.

We spoke, and I found David to be a pleasant and interesting young man. David told me that in the event that I could not accept his offer, he had planned to meet with the Philadelphia political consulting firm of Jamestown & Associates. Having worked with Jamestown's owner, Larry Weitzner, for more than 20 years, I highly recommended Jamestown to David.

The fact is I simply don't have the time to devote to the Sussex County freeholder race this year. Since 1993, I have fought a number of successful campaigns in Sussex County, but have learned to minimalize my local involvement during a presidential year, when there is so much to do that I cannot give Sussex County the full attention it deserves.

I wish all the candidates well and I am sure that Ms. Gorman will find, in Jamestown, the well-paid political adviser that she and her running mate require.

Bill Winkler

New Hope, Pa.

It also prompted candidate Dave Gray to send his own message of support and praise to Winkler:

From: David Gray <dgray@foremangray.com>

To: "baseline@sprynet.com" <baseline@sprynet.com>

Subject: herald comments

Date: Apr 5, 2016 4:48 PM

Bill,

I just wanted to send you a quick note to say that I have never met, nor have I ever spoken with Ms. Smulewicz – who commented in the Herald on your well-written letter.

Frankly, I have a lot of respect for you and thought we had a good conversation.  You are known in Sussex County to be one of the best political consultants around.  That  is why I called you and I thank you for your time discussing issues concerning Sussex County with me.  I hope to meet you in person in the future.

Best,

-Dave

David E. Gray, Esq.

--

Foreman & Gray, LLC

Attorneys at Law

760 Rt. 10 West 

Suite 204 

Whippany, NJ  07981 

Ph (973) 240-7313 

Fax: (973) 240-7316

ForemanGray.com

We got our hands on this directly from Winkler, who emailed Watchdog, and who doesn't seem to be too happy about being attacked and not being paid for it.  "I don't even have a candidate in the race," he wrote, adding, "Do you think they have a fetish concerning me?  It's like I'm being stalked! Could I be the focus of their bizarre fantasy?"   

Winkler's email referenced a further attack on him by a website some say is run by Freeholder Rich Vohden and energy lobbyist Wendy Molner.  The website uses various aliases when it blasts out its messages and has attempted to masquerade as Sussex Watchdog, Freeholder George Graham, and Mr. Winkler.

Things were going to be so boring without old Wee Willy.  Now, thanks to the desert dry team, and to the delight of everyone who follows the Watchdog, it looks like we're in for a real shatstorm. 

Energy Aggregation: Are we creating a Monopoly?

Last evening, the Sussex County Freeholders voted 3 (Crabb, Vohden, and Mudrick) to 2 (Phoebus and Graham) to make Concord Energy/ Concord Engineering the provider of energy to Sussex County government.  Concord is the for-profit corporation that has the contract to manage the Passaic County Government Energy Aggregation Program.  Sussex is now a part of the Passaic system.

There was an attempt to obscure this on the part of Phil "the fibber" Crabb who tried to mislead both his fellow freeholders and the public about the relationship between the Passaic County program and Concord.  He was supported in this by the manic presence of side-kick Richard Vohden.  But it failed to work because even Crabb and Vohden can't hide the volumes of correspondence they have received from Concord representatives Vicki Molloy and Wendy Molner about the Passaic program.  They know and they know too well.

One result of municipal aggregation is that, in effect, you are undoing the benefits of deregulation.  The main benefit, of course, is achieving lower rates through competition.  The price of electricity has been decreasing steadily since alternative suppliers came into the market.  That's because individual buyers have been allowed to make individual choices.  But when you re-concentrate large numbers of buyers into co-opts and establish corporate filters, you risk undoing that competition. 

The full benefit of deregulation is yet to be seen and municipal aggregation might halt that progress entirely.  Concord spreads a lot of money around and makes hundreds of direct political contributions.  They have hired two Sussex County politicians -- Wendy Molner (a former Mayor of Hardyston) and Molly Whilesmith (a Sparta councilman) to lobby for them and sell their program.  They even recruited a candidate for Assembly -- Marie Bilik.  We should be careful not to allow our elected representatives to return us to a pre-deregulation monopoly through the back door.  Our hindquarters are already sore from what they did to us over solar.

Wendy Kuser Molner

Vice President, Government Relations

Ms. Molner has over 15 years of experience in client relations, community outreach and governmental affairs.  Prior to joining Concord, she held community and legislative relations management positions at  NJ Transit and NJ Department of Transportation.

At Concord, Ms. Molner also serves in a business development capacity, bridging communications between the public and private sector regarding energy, legislative and public policy.    

Ms. Molner holds a BS in Public Policy from Upsala College and attended the Harvard University Certificate Program for Public Involvement.  She is also past mayor of Hardyston, NJ.