Glouco GOP Chair Loran Oglesby Responds To Sweeney-Corzine Team Intimidation

At issue is a letter from Gloucester County Democratic Committee counsel Timothy W. Chell, who also happens to serve as a mayor in a Sweeney-Corzine controlled municipality.

Of her response GCREC Chair Oglesby said, "It's obvious the Democrats don't like a fight because in my three years as chair I have never received a letter of this type. The GCREC, its officers and its candidates will not tolerate intimidation, harassment or any other unsavory tactics the other side may resort to using."

Following are copies of the Gloucester County Democratic Committee's letter and Chair Oglesby's response.

Democrat's Letter

Re: Inquirer Article on Freeholder Warren S, Wallace

Dear Ms. Oglesby:

Please be advised that the undersigned serves as counsel for the Gloucester County Democratic Party. Please accept this letter as our formal notice of serious factual inaccuracies in the article which recently appeared in the Inquirer regarding current Freeholder and Freeholder candidate, Dr. Warren S. Wallace. Please further accept this letter as notice that any use of the factual inaccuracies published in the Inquirer will be considered actionable by the Gloucester County Democratic Party and Dr. Warren S. Wallace personally.

Specifically, you are on notice of the following inaccuracies and any use of those again would be considered actionable:

1. Dr. Warren Wallace's salary was not $600,000 per year as reported by the Inquirer; it was $166,000 per year.

2. The Inquirer article reported "Dr. Wallace pressured staff to  interview and accept one of his daughters to medical school". No where in the federal monitor's report is this information.

3. The Inquirer reported that Dr. Wallace helped a friend get a no-bid cafeteria and catering job at the college. Please be advised that Dr. Wallace had no role or authority in approving any such contracts.

Please forward this letter to your endorsed candidates for Freeholder so that they are on notice of the Gloucester County Democratic Party and Dr. Wallace's position on these factual inaccuracies and the use of same will be considered actionab]e. Please be guided accordingly.

Very truly yours,

Timothy W. Chell

TWC:dg

cc: Michael A. Angelini, Chairman

GCREC Chair Oglesby Response

September 25, 2008

Re: Your Letter Regarding the Philadelphia Inquirer Article on Warren S. Wallace

Via facsimile and US mail

Dear Mr. Chell:

Before I begin, all correspondence to the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee (GCREC) should be addressed to the Party headquarters, not my home.

Obviously, I have received your letter with regard to the above captioned matter. Three different lawyers have reviewed your letter and told us to do whatever we wish so long as we continue to discuss only factual information.

For the record, no member of the GCREC wrote the newspaper article the folks at 27 South Broad Street seem to be so upset about. Perhaps some day Mr. Sweeney will permit Mr. Warren S. Wallace to speak and he can then get all the facts out with no confusion. Frankly we are still waiting on Mr. Warren S. Wallace to address the paper shredding incident detailed on pages three and four of the federal monitor's report.

Now to the issues raised in your letter:

• 1. Thank you for clearing up the matter on Warren Wallace's salary while at UMDNJ but we knew the published salary of $600,000 was a misprint and had no intention of using it.

• 2. Warren Wallace "...pressured staff to interview and accept one of his daughters to medical school." Obviously the folks at 27 South Broad Street don't bother to research their own candidates. Several newspapers have stated that Mr. Warren S. Wallace tried to get one of his daughters into medical school. There are three other Inquirer articles that say it and the New York Times on June 6, 2006 stated the source of this information was Robert J. Del Tufo, a former Attorney General. Perhaps he is the person you should be threatening with legal action but as he is a Corzine appointee I'd seriously doubt you would have the courage to send him threats of legal action as you did our candidates.

For the record we never had any intention of mentioning Mr. Warren S. Wallace and his attempts to get a relative into the school as the press has done a wonderful job of discussing it with no help from us.

• 3. This was the most laughable of your three points. Warren Wallace's involvement in helping a friend get a no-bid cafeteria and catering contract at UMDNJ is explained in great detail in pages 7 - 11 of the federal monitor's report. Our candidates have not discussed it because it would not be fair to bring a respected member of the Washington Township community into the campaign. Unfortunately, your whiny letter may have done exactly that and I sincerely hope he thanks you for it.

Perhaps you should keep to being a mayor, prosecutor and solicitor in towns controlled by the Sweeney-Corzine team because your skills at issuing threats of legal action need some work.

In the future, if the Gloucester County Democratic Committee wishes to attempt to intimidate the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee, its officers or its candidates, please do not bother, as we deal only in facts. We do not need to rely on the half-truths and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of glossy mailers that are sure to come from your organization.

Please take notice that our Freeholder candidates have never once discussed anything with regard to Mr. Warren S. Wallace or any of the Democratic Committee's candidates that is not based on fact. If you require a copy of the federal monitor's report or any newspapers to check some of these facts I will happily forward copies to you.

To be completely honest I can not figure out why the Gloucester County Democratic Committee circles the wagons around Mr. Warren S. Wallace, nor do I care. What I do care about is the Gloucester County Democratic Committee's attempt at intimidating our candidates with this type of harassment. Any further harassment of our candidates will be forwarded to legal counsel and dealt with accordingly.

Please feel free to forward this letter to your endorsed Freeholder candidates so that they are on notice that the Gloucester County Republican Executive Committee, its officers and its candidates will not tolerate any further harassment and/or threats from the Gloucester County Democratic Committee, its officers or its candidates.

Very truly yours,

Loran Oglesby

Chair, GCREC

LO:snk

cc:        Michael Angelini, Chair Gloucester County Democratic Committee

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