Chris Calabrese

In Bergen County, the Republican freeholder candidates’ opposition researchers have been in overdrive, accusing the Bergen County Improvement Authority of being a mere patronage arm of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, and blaming the incumbent freeholders of doing nothing to stop it.

The head of the BCIA, in turn, said that the Republicans are playing fast and loose with the facts by implying that the self-funding organization receives taxpayer money, and that grantees – not the authority – chooses bonding professionals. 

The Bergen County Republicans promised to raise the specter of indicted Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero a campaign issue, and they’ve done so, tying alleged corruption within the party to higher taxes in a new campaign commercial called “Corruption Tax.”

The advertisement, which was produced by the Bergen County Republican Organization, shows someone wearing an FBI jacket in front of a giant Bergen Record headline about Ferriero’s indictment on eight corruption counts last month.

In front of a pile of cash are pictures of Democratic incumbents Bernadette McPherson, David Ganz and Vernon Walton.

“Party boss Joe Ferriero gave them millions. They did what he told them. The Democrats raised spending $133 million,” says the narrator. “Waste. Abuse. Patronage. Now Ferriero is indicted for corruption. Higher taxes plus corrupt government equals corruption taxes. You pay.”

“While in Lyndhurst Jon Corzine should have visited with Mr. Amaral and apologized to him for his administrations failure top protect
property rights,” added Calabrese

ROCHELLE PARK -- In this one square mile town of 5,000, two Republican freeholder candidates, several local elected officials and one conservative activist held a press conference today to rail Bergen County's Democratic government and what they characterized as its assault on home rule.

It's the latest campaign theme of Republicans Chris Calabrese, Paul Duggan and Jeff Heller, who are running for freeholder in what has the potential to be a competitive race against Democratic incumbents David Ganz, Bernadette McPherson and Vernon Walton.

The Republicans call it a "campaign to save small towns" - or, to be exact, the 35 small Bergen County municipalities that County Executive Dennis McNerney hopes will at least consider consolidation.

Bergen County is made up of 70 municipalities, and is often cited as the prime example of the "boroughitis" that prevailed in the late 19th century, when small boroughs split off from larger townships.  The Republicans present raised the specter of a large, multi-town government being run similarly to what they said were less transparent governments in big cities like Newark and Paterson.

“David Ganz doesn’t even know what he is voting for,” said Calabrese. “Maybe he should read the spending resolutions more thoroughly before he votes on them especially since he is the liaison to the county open space board. He’s in too much of hurry to spend taxpayer money  to realize what he’s spending it on.

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin was so incensed by Freeholder David Ganz’s defense of indicted Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero that he called on the freeholder himself to resign this morning.

Yudin said that, while Ferriero remains innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, an indictment is cause enough to remove him from his chairmanship of the Democratic organization.

“This is a person running a political organization, and an indictment is damning enough that he should resign,’ he said. “If there is a prima facie case as there is here, it is outrageous that an elected official like Ganz says he should not resign. Not only is it outrageous, but if that’s his position, then he honestly doesn’t understand what being an elected official means. He’s betraying the voters’ trust.”

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin said today that the federal investigation of his Democratic counterpart, Joe Ferriero, “will have little impact” on the local freeholder and county clerk race this year.

“Joe Ferriero is not on the ballot, but freeholders David Ganz, Bernadette McPherson and Vernon Walton are and they have an abysmal record of governing that they must defend separate from Mr. Ferriero’s possible ethical problems,” he said in a statement.

Since April the freeholders have borrowed $113.8 million, pushing the county debt to more than $700 million. Currently, financing the debt costs taxpayers $46 million.

"If Barack Obama is taking economic advice from Gov. Corzine, then voters throughout the nation should be very scared,”

Over the last decade, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferrerio has consolidated power with help from a group of unlikely allies: The Bergen County Republican Organization.

Ferriero developed a fundraising machine and got most of his party in lock step behind him.  But bickering and internal disputes in the GOP hurt that party’s ability to provide a counterweight, as did anemic fundraising. 

Bob Yudin, who was elected as county chairman last month, hopes to change that. 

“Since the day I was elected, I have been reaching out,” said Yudin.  “In my acceptance speech and every day I reach out and try to counsel people.  We have to stop the fighting, we have to work together, and it has been effective to some degree already.”