Francis Bodine

Key South Jersey Democrats believe that they could emerge from the fall midterm elections with seven State Senate seats, giving them a formidable block if there leadership contests.  Four seats are locks: incumbents Stephen Sweeney, Frederick Madden, and John Adler, and Dana Redd, who is seeking Wayne Bryant’s seat in Camden County.   Democrats are very high on their chances to oust Republicans Nicholas Asselta and James “Sonny” McCullough, and see a possible pickup in the open eighth district, where their Senate candidate is Francis Bodine, a Republican Assemblyman until he switched parties last spring.

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The Republican mail piece hit last week in between two debates in four days, and it was arguably the most controversial of the political season, not just in the contentious 8th district but anywhere.

Next to a photograph of masked men marching in a column with guns at the ready, the words refer to a terror suspect nabbed by authorities in connection with a conspiracy to bomb Fort Dix: "He came to our country illegally. He plotted with other Islamic radicals to kill American soldiers... Now Tracy Riley's family's law firm is defending him... and your tax dollars are paying them to do it."

Riley's husband is the court-appointed attorney representing one of the terror suspects.

Republican sources say that the National Rifle Association will commit some resources to elect Democrat Francis Bodine to the State Senate.  Bodine was a Republican Assemblyman who switched parties this year.

All but counted out in his district 8 state Senate race, Assemblyman Fran Bodine threw aside a dysfunctional microphone and declared in a booming voice his willingness to fight Wednesday night in front of an audience of mostly senior citizens in the gated community of Leisuretown in Southampton.

His opposition was subdued, even silent.

Sitting on a lead according to internal GOP polling, confident in the knowledge that the district tilts in his direction, and fearful of being captured by what Republicans said might be the presence of a hidden video camera wielded by the Democrats, GOP state Senate candidate Phil Haines kept his mouth shut.

On information supplied by a mole in the District 8 office of former Republican Assemblyman Francis Bodine, Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce today filed Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroceethics complaints against Democrats running in the 1st, 2nd and 8th districts, charging them with failing to keep their political campaigns from spilling over into their district offices.

According to DeCroce, the legislative campaigns of senate candidates Assemblyman Jim Whelan, Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew and Bodine "used state resources to further their campaign activities or the campaign activities of their running mates," a misuse of public resources that violates conflicts of interest law and the legislative code of ethics and rules, DeCroce said.

The minority leader filed the complaint with Judge Herbert S. Friend, vice chair/acting chair of the state Joint Committee on Ethics, after a Bodine 8th District office staffer told Republicans that he collected tax rebate mail pieces at Bodine’s district office, which he then gave to Bodine’s campaign spokesman Peter Clerkin for use in the candidate’s state Senate race.

Burlington County Clerk Phil Haines, state senate candidate in District 8, admitted today that he made a mistake when he said he received no income from the private law firm, Wells, Singer and Musulin, P.A., in 2006.

"I was going from memory," said Haines, who today corrected the record and said he received $1,233.90 from the law firm in 2006, not in 2005, as he stated yesterday in a telephone interview.