KERSEY AND BERNARD CALL ON OPPONENTS TO HELP END COUNTY WASTE, FRAUD, ABUSE

For Immediate Release

Contact: Chris Fifis - 609-206-1678       

(July 24, 2009) – Kimberly Kersey and Jim Bernard, Democratic candidates for the Burlington County Freeholder Board, are calling on their opponents to stop hiding behind the "Paulsen's 20" playbook and to instead join them in repudiating the decades of waste, fraud and abuse that have come to symbolize the Burlington County Republican Party.

Calling the Republican Party’s latest press release “a desperate campaign tactic that smears the hard-working families of Burlington County, many of whom protect us from criminals, keep our roads and neighborhoods clean and provide services to our elderly,” Kersey and Bernard said their opponents need to stop obfuscating the truth.      

“Even their high-priced spin machine cannot rewrite the history of waste, fraud and abuse perpetrated by the Burlington County Republicans,” said Kersey.      

“Our opponents were silent when Democrats led an initiative to cut the salaries of political patronage positions in an effort to provide real tax relief,” Kersey said. “They have been silent even as Burlington County paid over $2.2 million to Capehart and Scatchard, the Mount Laurel law firm of Glenn Paulsen, leader of the infamous “Paulsen’s 20” (www.paulsens20.com). They were silent just as every Republican who preceded them was silent as scandal after scandal was unveiled at the Burlington County Bridge Commission.”

Whether it was Republican Bob Stears stealing $2.7 million in still-unrecovered taxpayer money or Republican Martha Bark and her no show jobs at Palmyra Cove, the two Democratic Freeholder candidates agree that the Burlington County Bridge Commission stands as an historical monument of the county’s corrupt past.            

Kersey and Bernard, as they announced their Democratic candidacy earlier this year, unveiled a detailed plan to make Burlington County government affordable, accountable and accessible.  They have supported a number of initiatives to reorganize the County work force and to find efficiencies throughout the government.

“Rather than vehemently attacking every individual or organization that supports us, Republicans Bruce Garganio and Mary Ann O'Brien can help County government by calling on their own party to clean up their act,” said Bernard.  “Did they lose Freeholder-Director Donnelly’s phone number? They can walk across the street from their campaign office to the County building, where many of their high-priced GOP cronies also work, and join us in calling for a reduction to political patronage salaries.      

“Why won’t they join us in calling for the jailed felon Bob Stears to return the $2.7 million he stole from the Bridge Commission at the same time he was donating up to $4,500 a month back to the Republican Party,” asked Bernard. “These are easy initiatives that our opponents can accomplish with just one phone call. Political patronage salaries can be cut with one Republican vote and, if they truly are on the side of the taxpayers, they should help the Democrats get it done.”            

Kersey and Bernard have no confidence that their Republican opponents have any desire to work on behalf of Burlington County taxpayers.            

“Garganio and O'Brien have chosen to align themselves with the same corrupt team responsible for stealing $2.7 million at the Bridge commission, giving pension-padding, no-show jobs to Martha Bark and rewarding high-dollar donors with millions of taxpayer-funded contracts instead of coming down on the side of the hard-working taxpayers of Burlington County,” said Kersey. “There is no sign that they will suddenly see the light and begin working for reform.”            

“It is clear to us and to the voters of Burlington County that the Republican Party is trying to cover its tracks of corruption and waste by attacking working families,” said Bernard.  “These families didn’t steal taxpayer dollars from the Bridge Commission. Working families are not collecting six-figure salaries while working in unclassified County jobs.”            

Kersey and Bernard are steadfast in their assertion that it has been the Republicans who have destroyed the fabric of good government in this County.  Instead of fighting for tax relief, they have been more interested in protecting their fiefdom of patronage, which last year saw 20 individuals collect millions of dollars in contracts and salaries while personally guaranteeing loans to the Republican Party.            

This is the same Republican Party whose campaigns have been the subject of lawsuits, a rebuke from a Federal judge, roundly criticized by editorial boards across the State and have even been chastised by the former leader of the state committee of Republican County Chairs.                            

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