Richard McClellan

In her bid to become Assembly Speaker, Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) has the strong backing of the leader of her home county Democratic organization.

"Allow me to jump in with my wholehearted support for favorite-daughter candidate Bonnie Watson Coleman for the Speaker's position in the New Jersey Assembly if current Speaker Roberts announces that he will not seek another term," Mercer County Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan said in an e-mail to PolitickerNJ.com. 

McClellan called Watson Coleman, the current Majority leader and a former Democratic State Chair, a " tireless and energizing leader for the causes that Democrats and the citizens of this state hold most dear."

"She is an effective bridge between the northern and southern wings of our party and is universally respected among her peers and among party leaders," said McClellan.  "Eschewing any other adjectives which others might chose to apply regarding her race and gender, I support Assemblywoman Watson Coleman for this position because she is simply the best person for the job. End of story."

Mercer County Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan scored a clear victory over the local GOP this week.  After the Republicans tried to make an issue of Democrats taking contributions from Rick Perr's controversial New Frontiers PAC, McClellan said that even though the Election Law Enforcement Commission hasn't ruled on questions regarding the PAC, McClellan would put the monies they received in escrow just to avoid even an appearance of impropriety.  He pledged to contribute that money to charity if ELEC finds Perrpac did anything illegal.

Then McClellan beat the crap out of Republicans with their own issue, suggesting that if they "are truly serious" about the need to return tainted dollars, that could start with giving the nearly $52,000 the Mercer County GOP received from Harry Parkin, who was Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti's Chief of Staff and is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption, and from cohorts and firms that were involved in the scandal.

Mercer County Republicans are hoping that some of the bad news that Burlington County Democrats had to deal with this week over the New Frontier PAC will rub off on Mercer Democrats.

Involvement in the PAC – which was founded to help south Jersey campaigns but drew scrutiny after it donated tens of thousands of dollars to Hudson County candidates, including arrested former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano – forced Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr to announce his impending resignation, weeks after the party’s former treasurer, Jeff Meyer, quit.

Republican freeholder candidates Cindy Randazzo, Joe D’Angelo and Russ Wojtenko, Jr. noted that New Frontier gave County Executive Brian Hughes $2,500 in May, 2007 – four days after Royal Printing gave the PAC a donation of the same amount.  Royal Printing, they said, was given a no-bid printing contract worth $200,000 by the freeholder board the year before. 

The state Appellate Court today upheld a ruling that stripped Harry Parkin, the former Chief of Staff to Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti, of his government pension following his 2005 corruption conviction.  Parkin, who was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for his role in delivering a county recycling contract to a company he had a financial interest in, maintained that he should keep the pension on his six years of service before committing his crime in 2000.

"In the wake of the Former Republican County Government Chief of Staff Harry Parkin's corruption scandal, it was a Democratic County Executive and Freeholder Board that implemented the first county-wide pay-to-play reform in the state of New Jersey," said Mercer County Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan. "I personally testified before the Board of Freeholders in favor of this landmark legislation."

Mercer County Democratic Chairman Richard McClellan seems to like having Roy Wesley as the GOP County Chairman.  In an e-mail to PolitickerNJ.com, McClellan commented on the decision to replace Sidna Mitchell on the GOP organization line with attorney William Harvey: "Roy Wesley's recruitment of Passaic political carpetbagger Bill Harvey (registered on 10-18-2008) for the 14th (and also last year's tapping of Cindy Randazzo after one year in town) is part of the Mercer Republicans' new ‘Welcome Wagon' strategy.  Every new Republican who moves into the county gets a petition for office, a blindfold and a cigarette."

Gov. Jon Corzine and Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan have ventured into the non-partisan waters of Robbinsville politics to endorse Republican Miguel Edwards in his bid for Councilman.  Edwards is running on a slate headed by Councilwoman Sonja Walter, who is challenging Mayor David Fried.  Fried is a Republican who came within three votes of ousting GOP County Chairman Roy Wesley last year. 

The endorsements by Corzine and Cryan came through remarks at the Mercer County Democratic convention last Saturday.  The two are backing Walter for Mayor.

With Mercer County facing a $43 million budget shortfall and County Executive Brian Hughes raising the possibility of public worker layoffs, local Republican Chairman Roy Wesley wants to know why Sheriff Kevin Larkin is collecting a pension for the job he’s still working.  

On January 1st, Larkin met the requirements for the Police and Fire Retirement System, at which point he started receiving a pension of about $85,000 per year.  But he remains employed as sheriff, concurrently collecting his regular salary of $129,364.

Wesley thinks that, while legal, Larkin’s collection of the benefits represents a double standard, and that Larkin should either resign or wait until he actually retires to collect the pension.  As a public official, he said, he ought to set an example.  

Source: hamiltonnj.com

Hamilton Council President Kelly Yaede has decided not to run for assembly in the 14th Legislative District, leaving Mercer County Republicans without a candidate in a district they hope to make one of the most competitive in the state.

“Right now I think there’s too much at stake for me to do otherwise,” said Yaede.  “I ran two straight years for the position on the council, and it’s a job that I absolutely love, and I intend to continue to serve the people of Hamilton Township.”

Yaede’s decision has left party leaders scrambling to find candidates in time for the Mercer County Republican convention tomorrow night.  One party source said that they might have to come up witha placeholder to extend their recruitment window, then switch them out when they find suitable candidates.  

Yaede was considered the top choice to take on assembly incumbents Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton).  Another top recruit, former State Trooper Jim McSorley, who ran for sheriff last year, opted against running earlier this month.

Republican Mercer County Sheriff candidate Jim McSorley said that three OPRA requests he filed last week for information about the sheriff’s office have either been ignored or have been answered with incomplete information.

McSorley, a retired state police captain who’s challenging incumbent Democrat Kevin Larkin, said that he was informed that the office has not kept a table of organization for the last three years.

“Each local police department in Mercer County has a table of organization to serve the same purpose. Even McDonald’s doesn’t run without a table of organization and the fact that Sheriff Larkin has been running his office in such a reckless manner for so many years once again proves his record of mismanagement,” said McSorley.