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Richard Larsen |
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Michael Fiure
Posse III |
Haines Loses To Fiure; Also Loses
To Larsen; Rodgers Runs Last In Close Dover Race After Contentious
Campaign Of Reciprocal Misinformation
Republicans Lose Control Of Dover
Township For The First Time Since 1980; Boss Clement’s Sleazy
Political Empire Implodes As Change Of Government Question He Lied
About Is Adopted
Dover Township: Accountant Richard Larsen, a Democrat,
apparently never analyzed the township budget, so he never told
anybody about the record spending increase that will increase taxes as
soon as the township runs out of reserve capital.
But Larsen won the election anyway, and was the top vote getter in a
narrow range that saw only a 580 vote margin between top and bottom.
Larsen Won Because He Wasn't Virginia Haines
Larsen won because he wasn't Virginia Haines, a Republican whose
personal greed and tendency to take liberties with the truth became
abundantly apparent to constituents who, she thought, would be proud
to elect her by a big margin. She was wrong.
Haines Thought Of Herself As Having Star Quality
Haines, who liked to get her picture taken with the winners as
“Director” of the lottery department in Trenton, and regarded herself
as someone with star quality, came in third, about 40 votes behind
former Manville Councilman and Posse Deputy Coordinator Michael Fiure,
who will now take office with Larsen.
No one ever heard of Fiure, who has lived in town only since June of
2000, until Posse Chief Carmine Inteso and Republican Boss R. C.
Clement had him appointed to the Township Committee so the township
could buy him a $12,500 health insurance policy. Fiure is a lawyer.
Fiure won because the Democrats ran a pathetically weak campaign, and
because he was in the right place at the right time at the vortex of a
calculus of convoluted arithmetic.
Coming in dead last was Thomas Rodgers, Larsen’s Democratic running
mate, a fire fighter.
Larsen And Fiure Will Only Serve One Year
Larsen and Fiure will assume the burdens of their township committee
offices starting on January 1, but will only serve one year of their
three year terms because the change of government question was adopted
by the voters by an 800 vote margin, and a new elected mayor and seven
member council, including four from newly drawn wards, will take
office after the 2003 general election.
Among the many reasons the Change Of Government question won was
because factually challenged GOP Boss R. C. Clement, greedy and
arrogant to the last in opposing the change, told ten too many lies
and sucked up to development interests and their lawyers ten times too
many.
The biggest losers in the whole process were Clement and other GOP
leaders who now, at least until the Democrats screw things up, will
have to be a bit more creative in handing out planning board approvals
and appointments, as well as the costly patronage and nepotism for
which Clement and the others are justifiably famous.
Election Was A “Maelstrom of Contradictions"
The election was a maelstrom of contradictions, where a slightly
higher than expected voter turnout made all the difference, because on
the margin, the few hundred extra voters, sick and tired of being lied
to by Haines and Clement, were lopsided in their opposition to
Republican candidates and lopsided in their support for the change of
government in a community where the township committee is an expensive
local joke.
There are so many contradictions and so many competing forces in the
Dover vote, that it requires a lot of explaining, much of which,
admittedly, will have a component of speculation.
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Rodgers |
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Haines |
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Boss R.C. Clement |
Tune in every day to the OceanCountyPolitics•Com WebSite for a
series of articles on the Dover election results, and what is likely
to happen next as change-of-government fever takes hold, and the
bumbling local Democratic organization begins to consider its
alternatives for reorganization.
(for 11/06/02)
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