McGettigan wants to ban auditor contributions

By Matt Friedman | June 20th, 2007 - 4:27pm
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Atlantic County Executive candidate Jim McGettigan fired off the latest volley in his battle against incumbent Dennis Levinson.

McGettigan, the Atlantic County Sheriff, assailed Levinson for accepting donations from county auditors, arguing that they had done nothing to alleviate county taxes and were only hired because they gave campaign donations to Republicans. He cited that the firm Ford Scott Seidenburg & Kennedy donated $11,000 to Levinson and other county Republicans since 2000.

"These audits are supposed to be independent, but when the auditor is in bed with the party in power to the tune of $11,000 there is a clear bias.”

But Levinson shot back, arguing that the auditor in question was the lowest bidder for the contract. Picking the lowest bidder for professional contracts, Levinson said, is above and beyond the requirements of state law. He added that the auditor was picked not by him, but by his staff.

“So far in this campaign, the only time [McGettigan] has opened his mouth has been to change feet,” said Levinson. “This firm that he is speaking of is the lowest responsible bidder. This was by far the lowest bid.”

The McGettigan press release was the latest in a particularly volatile campaign. Just yesterday, Levinson’s campaign put out a press release arguing that McGettigan shirked his responsibilities as Sheriff by failing to attend Youth Services Advisory Meetings.

Tags:

Pandora's bcx

Submitted by Republican Cons... on June 21, 2007 - 8:36am.

Auditors are awarded no bid contracts and McGettigan is right. That is exactly what the "Pay-to-Play" brouhaha's about. But this is a Pandora's Box. Let's start going after the Law Firms and Engineers.

Perhaps if McGettigan is sucessful we should look into the political donations from DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick, Cole & Wisler, LLP, the Engineering firm of Boswell Engineering, etc.

 

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." Thomas Paine

McG

Submitted by SJBlue on June 21, 2007 - 9:36am.

Dems are making big pick ups in SJ, is this the best the could find t orun against an embattled D. Levenson?

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