Reinhart and the Ultimate Hypocrisy - Denies Pay to Local Guardsman But Keeps It For Herself

Burlington County Freeholder Director Aubrey Fenton accused his Democrat opponent, Shamong Township Committeewoman Mary Anne Reinhart, of having a “badly twisted sense of priorities” for accepting an increase in her own salary while refusing a leave with pay for a township employee deployed to a combat zone in Iraq. 

      “No matter how people feel about the war, everyone wholeheartedly agrees that we need to support our troops,” said Fenton, “except, apparently, Mary Anne Reinhart. 

      “In a county in which the military maintains such a major presence, provides thousands of jobs, and pumps millions of dollars a year into the local economy, Reinhart’s refusal to support paid leave for a township employee sent off to war defies rational explanation,” he added. 

      Reinhart, a Democrat candidate for the Board of Freeholders, was the only member of the township committee to cast votes against providing leave with pay for the local tax assessor who was deployed to Iraq with his National Guard unit.  He was receiving $1,170 per month in the job. 

      However, said Fenton, and his running mate, Freeholder Stacey Jordan, “Committeewoman Reinhart obviously had no qualms about accepting salary increases for herself in each of the last four years.” 

      Reinhart’s anti-military position runs counter to that of the county freeholders, who provide compensation to county employees who are members of the Reserves and National Guard, when they are activated. 

      Freeholders have received “five star” recognition from the Employee Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) committee for this commitment.  

      “Reinhart’s negative votes --- not once which she could argue was an error, but twice which means it was a deliberate act --- are an insult to the military and to the thousands of veterans who call Burlington County home,” Fenton said.  “She placed her own financial situation ahead of that of a township employee who also happened to be a member of the military.”  

      The Republicans said the Democrats’ record of antipathy toward the military was never more clear than when the Mayor of Fieldsboro, Buddy Tyler, in 2003 ordered the removal of yellow ribbons which residents had affixed to trees and poles in the town in support of the troops overseas. 

      “In a staggering display of insensitivity toward the military and their families, Tyler compared the yellow ribbons to Nazi swastikas and Ku Klux Klan symbols,” Fenton and Jordan said.   “It was only after an outcry that attracted national media attention that Tyler finally recognized how remarkably insulting his actions were.”