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Two Of Them Are From
Manchester Township, One Is From Berkeley Township, And One Is From
Beachwood
But The Other Six Are From Dover Township And Their Identities Are
Quite Predictable
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Robert K.
Haelig Jr. |
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John F.
Russo Jr. |
OCPolitics•Com
“Top Ten Citizens Instrumental In The Successful Adoption Of The
Change Of Government In Dover Township”
Former Assemblyman Robert K. Haelig Jr.
and
Dover Township Committeeman
John F. Russo Jr.
Bob Haelig is a Republican official who broke with local party
bosses three years ago on issues involving excessive spending, payroll
padding, overdevelopment and open space acquisition. He is a campaign
consultant and a Commissioner on the Dover MUA who is credited with
rescuing the authority from near bankruptcy in the 1980's.
Bob Haelig: Haelig signed on as a volunteer to the government change project
with some reluctance because the new government’s partisan character
will still allow party bosses to nominate candidates through the
primary election process. “Political manipulation and political
payoffs have seriously damaged the credibility of the current
government”, Haelig has said.
“Getting past the basic boss-infected character of the new government,
while not impossible, will be very difficult: it is likely that the
Regular Republican and the Regular Democratic candidates, all 16 of
them, will still be chosen by six or eight of the greediest political
bosses in the township. Citizens must have the means to be
sufficiently vigilant”, he noted.
Haelig, author of the Eight Rules of Good Local Government and analyst
of five (count‘em) financial crises since 1980 in Dover Township, is
sure the township is headed for another big financial problem because
of the out-of-control township budget and the overdevelopment and
traffic gridlock issues that township officials simply will not
address.
For him, the Change of Government, even with its flaws, can be just in
the nick of time.
Haelig did not like the form that was picked, but he relented, and
signed on because if the referendum did not pass, there would have
been no change at all which “would have guaranteed total disaster” in
the years immediately ahead.
So taxpayers would have been losers if the government didn’t change.
And it was really the only ball game in town.
“If a client wants us to lie, we tell him to take his print job
somewhere else”, Haelig says, recalling an ultimatum he presented to
the local Republican leadership when he dumped the Dover GOP as a long
time customer.
He gave the citizens group backing the change of government the verbal
ammunition they needed (every word of it true) to offset $100,000
worth of lies in ten expensive mailers circulated by the
developer-dominated opposition.
And the government change folks got the lift they needed right before
the election, when the only mailer from the Vote YES Committee was
sent out to 16,000 households.
For previous statement by Haelig on the need for vigilance in candidate
selection for the new government, click here.
John Russo Jr. is the son of former Senator John F. Russo and a
member of the Dover Township Committee who was elected in 2000. Russo
Jr. has taken issue with the local Democratic Party hierarchy recently
on questions of bossism and blind obedience to the party line. He is a
spokesman for environmental and fiscal discipline issues.
John Russo Jr.: Offered to help raise money for $1500 of radio
spots to offset opposition spots on WOBM. The opposition spots, $8000
of them, featured some of the same lies that GOP Boss R. C. Clement
and Developers’ Lawyer Harvey York installed in the expensive
collection of glossy inaccuracies they sent out in the mail.
Russo could have easily cut the spots, but his status as a prominent
Democrat might have compromised the independence of the project (local
Democrats were being accused of organizing the government change
crusade). So Russo helped write the copy and Republican Bob Haelig cut
the spots. It was an interesting collaboration that worked well.
When Virginia Haines and Carmine Inteso tried to keep the new
government from getting on the ballot - and when the same two
reactionaries said “no” to a reasonable explanatory statement, it was
Russo Jr. who was there with constructive dialogue that got just the
right message out through the newspaper media..
When Citizens Alert needed a second spokesperson to represent the
affirmative side at the Chamber Of Commerce forum on the Government
Change, Russo Jr., was an articulate representative who made effective
points against misinformation presented by Developers’ Lawyer Joseph
Coronato, the Republican Chairman speaking for the development
interests.
The forum was well attended and was also seen by many residents on
local television channels.
Russo Jr. says his work on the government change is "my proudest
achievement as an elected official - and one that will have a positive
impact for all time on the residents of Dover Township."
Russo Jr.’s steady hand and important assistance when it counted were
invaluable to the success of the Change Of Government project, and his
work was not without an element of courage.
Russo angered local Democrat boss “Doctor” Jack Moriarty whose weird
loyalty theories do not allow for anyone he thinks he is entitled to
control stepping off the reservation even for an instant. Moriarty
accused Russo Jr. of not working hard enough for one of the local
Democrat candidates, even though Moriarty’s candidates were also
supporting the Change of Government. And so it goes. If the gentle
reader spots a contradiction here, it is Moriarty’s problem, not Russo
Jr.’s - who deserves the thanks of the community for his good work for
a needed reform at a critical time in the township’s history.
The Senator also played a role in the government change.
Click here for previous
OCPolitics•Com article on Senator Russo's Government Change
Endorsement.
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