McCullough,Amodeo,& Polistina: Whelan Backstabs Longtime Friend Mayor Levy For Political Advantage

           (Atlantic County, NJ) Edward Kline, campaign manager for McCullough-Polistina-Amodeo legislative team, today described Assemblyman Jim Whelan’s call for the resignation of Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy as “a sad, shameful and sickening example of backstabbing for political advantage.”

          “The personal and political friendship which has existed between Whelan and Levy is both well known and of long standing,” Kline said.  “As Mayor of Atlantic City, Whelan hired Levy, assisted him politically, and was one of his strongest supporters when he ran for mayor.  But, aside from their strong political alliance, Whelan and Levy worked together on the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, they rowed together on a regular basis, and their spouses are close personal friends.”

          “Yet, at the first sign that Levy faced potential legal or criminal difficulties, Whelan danced to the tune of his Camden County benefactors and turned viciously on the man he called friend for so many years,” Kline said.   “It’s apparent that Whelan was advised by his Camden County managers to distance himself immediately and decisively from Levy and attempt to avoid the taint of potential public corruption.”

          “His actions are unconscionable,” Kline said. “Whelan, by his own admission, never even gave Levy the courtesy of a telephone call to inform him of his plans to ask for his resignation.  He deliberately tossed a lifetime of friendship into the dirt in furtherance of his political future.”

           “I never thought Whelan could sink lower than he did two years ago after waging the most expensive, negative and personal campaigns in Atlantic County history,” Kline said.  “But he has.”