ASSELTA: VAN DREW DELIBERATELY MISLEADS. AGAIN.

ASSELTA: VAN DREW DELIBERATELY MISLEADS. AGAIN.

(VINELAND, July 14) -– First District Senator Nick Asselta – responding to continued misleading statements by Democratic Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew denying his vote in support of giving the Governor a blank check to prepare for the sale of the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway -– today again called on Van Drew to come clean.

“Jeff Van Drew and Nelson Albano voted on June 21 to give the Governor a blank check to pay engineering, legal, and financial advisors to prepare to sell New Jersey’s toll roads -– including the Garden State Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway,” said Asselta. “And ever since, they haven’t been telling the truth to their constituents.

“Van Drew’s latest deception came Saturday, in Mike Miller’s story in The Press of Atlantic City. Here’s the misleading language from the story:

Not mentioned by Republicans, Van Drew said, is that he and Democratic running mate Assemblyman Nelson Albano unsuccessfully tried to have the lease language removed from the budget before it came up for a vote. The motion failed.

“We have shown we are willing to break ranks. We have done it publicly and in caucus and on the floor of the Assembly,” Van Drew said.

“Here’s the problem for Van Drew -- there never was a vote on the floor to have the lease language removed,” Asselta continued. “And because there never was an up-or-down vote on the measure in question, he couldn’t cast a vote for it or against it. So Van Drew’s declaration that he ‘tried to have the lease language removed’ is false.

“Jeff Van Drew is smart enough to know there’s a huge difference between voting to prevent debate on a measure, and voting for the measure itself. His Democratic allies wouldn’t even allow debate on the measure he’s referring to, so there was no way for him to cast a vote to remove the lease language.

“Yet he’s been saying for weeks now that he voted to remove the lease language -– when it just isn’t true. He’s deliberately misleading his constituents. Again.

“While we’re at it, let’s take just a moment to review his comment that he has shown a willingness to ‘break ranks.’ He shouldn’t have to break ranks –- if he was really opposed to giving the Governor a blank check to prepare to sell the toll roads, he could have argued with his Camden ally Joe Roberts to remove the language when he first saw it. Failing that, he could have offered an amendment himself -– which would have been much more difficult to dispose of with a simple tabling resolution, because it would have been coming from a member of the leadership of the majority party. We’ll never know if he argued with his close ally Joe Roberts, but we certainly do know that he never offered an amendment himself.

“This Trenton doubletalk has just got to stop. It’s just not right for Jeff Van Drew to vote one way in Trenton, and then come back and talk a different way in the First District. That’s not the kind of leadership we need here in the First District.”

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Paid for by Asselta Clark Donohue