FENTON CALLS ON DEMOCRAT OPPONENTS TO REPUDIATE PERR AND HIS FALSE AND DANGEROUS POLITICAL ADS

Their campaign already tarnished by a radio ad that KYW 1060 pulled off the air, Democrats freeholder candidates Chris Brown and Mary Ann Reinhart now need to own up to a second ad that misrepresents and smears Burlington County’s 911 emergency radio network.

            That was the challenge that Freeholder Aubrey Fenton today laid before his Democrat opponents who, he said, now should repudiate the gutter politics and scare tactics that have been orchestrated by Democrat Chairman Rick Perr on their behalf.

            “How low can these Democrats go?” said Fenton.  “The radio station had no choice but to pull their ad that falsely accused me of not paying taxes.  But their second ad, featuring a doctored police call in Cinnaminson, is no less offensive.

            “Rick Perr’s political ads are built on lies.  Brown and Reinhart should be embarrassed by his tactics.  Again, the only conclusion that voters can reach is that you can not believe anything they claim about themselves or say about me and my running mates.”

            Since Friday, when the Democrats “called me out” on the Cinnaminson matter, said Fenton, he has taken the time to listen to the original routine police call, as well as the version the Democrats doctored and placed on the YouTube website with the “burlcodems” brand.  It’s now time for Brown and Reinhart to take a look, he said.

            “The newpaper accounts of the Democrats’ political work are right on the money,” said Fenton.  “A routine call was falsely characterized as an emergency 911 call.  Then, the dispatcher’s initial confusion with the caller’s pronunciation of a street name was repeated five times on the YouTube political ad when it was stated only once, making it appear that the County’s radio system, and its dispatchers, were incompetent.

            “Contrary to Rick Perr’s claims, this isn’t free speech.  It’s using falsehoods to throw fear into the minds of residents about the capability of the 911 response system.  It’s ugly, it’s wrong, and it undermines public confidence in the public safety network.”

            Perr’s ad was so egregious that it has drew a press advisory from the Burlington County Prosecutor warning individuals about “attempts by certain individuals to publicly disseminate and create a false impression to the public by using the contest of a non-emergent call placed to Central Communications…”  The Prosecutor has taken it a step further by opening a criminal investigation into the responsibility for this false and scurrilous ad.

            Even worse, said Fenton, is that it skirts another irrefutable fact, namely that the county’s central communications system has been dispatching 911 calls in Cinnaminson for years.  To besmirch that system now is a low political blow, even for Perr.

            “My Democrat opponents called me out on this issue, and there it is,” said Fenton.  “Now I’m calling them out.  These folks want to serve as freeholder.  Yet they have allowed themselves to become partners in a criminal conspiracy to undermine a vital county government service.  I don’t need to call Rick Perr into account.  They do.”