Mercer Sheriff race heats up

Republican Mercer County Sheriff candidate Jim McSorely accused incumbent Sheriff Kevin Larkin today of working a second job when he’s supposed to still be on the clock.

According to McSorely, Larkin works the 4:00p.m. to midnight shift at an apartment complex, when the Mercer County courts don’t close until 4:30p.m. 

“That half hour each day is time that Mr. Larkin is being paid by the taxpayers, but not performing the duties he is paid for,” said McSorely.  “How many Mercer County residents have jobs where their boss agrees to pay them even when they leave early so they can go work at another job?  My bet is not many, if any at all.  Yet, that is exactly the job the Sheriff has now and the taxpayers are the boss.  There is no question that this is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars.”

The race between the two men has heated up recently in this heavily Democratic county.  In response to McSorely’s initial charge that Larkin worked at the apartment complex and at a Point Pleasant bar during the summer. Mercer Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan said that McSorely, during his years as a New Jersey State Police captain, worked private traffic details.  McSorely responded that contractors paid the police for the services, who in turn paid him overtime – that it was not an outside job.

“I am proud of my 25 years of service for the New Jersey State Police and I find it disgraceful that Mr. Larkin would call on his taxpayer-funded political mouthpiece to do his talking for him,” said McSorely.  “You can be sure that when I’m sheriff, if I have something to say, I will say it myself.”

McClellan responded by touting Larkin’s accomplishments heading up the Sheriff’s office including modernizing the department, cutting down its backlog of warrants, and instituting an Alzheimer patient tracking system. 

"Mr. McSorely's latest release is a naked attempt to hide that fact that he has been caught red-handed in a contradiction: namely that he said that it is bad for Kevin Larkin to have part-time employment outside the Sheriff office, yet he himself had thousands of hours in private employment work while he was an officer in the state police.  The employment is not the issue any more, Mr. McSorely's double standard on the truth is,” he said.  “He is also showing that with his 9 to 5 mentality he might make a good “time clock cop” but that he has little understand ing of the flexibility required in modern law enforcement. 

Editor's Note: McClellan, the unsalaried Democratic County Chairman, is not on any public payroll.