George Devanney

There is something terribly wrong going on here in Union County. When did it become acceptable for county employees to be abusive toward the public? Just when did the county manager, who in actuality is nothing more than a hired hand like any other CEO or COO of a corporation, become endowed with the right to publicly malign share holders, in his case taxpayers, and get away with it?

A few weeks back a letter from a Cranford resident appeared in the Sunday Star Ledger critical of the Union County Freeholders and what was than still a proposal to close the county owned Oak Ridge Golf Course in Clark.  Since than the course has been "officially" closed, "officially" renamed and is now being "officially" torn up to render it impossible to ever "officially" reclaim for golf.  It appears that it is being readied to meet my prediction from a couple of months ago that George Devanney's Music Fest will find a new home at what is now called Oak Ridge Park, situated smack in the middle of an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Columnist Paul Mulshine has chimed in questioning the speed and the wisdom of the course's closing or was that the wisdom of the freeholders in general?

Harry Hurley wil be #100 on the PoliticsNJ.com Power List 2007 -- the 100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey PoliticsAtlantic City radio show host Harry Hurley will be the 100th person on PoliticsNJ.com's list of the 100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Politics. The final slot was left to the choice of our readers, and in a two-day online poll that attracted nearly 2,900 voters, Hurley defeated Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson by a 35%-15% margin. Public Policy guru Jon Shure finished third with 12%, just narrowly leading Union County Manager George Devanney (12%). None of the other six candidates -- Cape May County GOP Chairman David Von Savage, attorney and Democratic fundraiser Victor Herlinsky, conservative political strategist Rick Shaftan, Burlington County GOP Chairman Mike Warner, and Jersey City political activists Bobby Jackson and Joe Cardwell -- finished in the double digits.

The Power List will be released today, with names revealed in groups of ten at half-hour intervals, beginning at 10AM.

The PoliticsNJ.com Power List of the 100 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Politics will be released on Thursday.  This year, our readers get to pick the person who gets the final slot -- #100 --  from our last ten candidates.  Vote Tuesday and Wednesday to decide who gets on the Power List -- and who doesn't!