Mayor Varano, Other Progressive Democrats, Are Good Prospects For Higher Office, But Why Bother When The County Chairman Has Disgraced The Party And Process To The Point Where Nobody Identified With Him Can Win?

Chairman Fred Potter Stayed In Pt. Pleasant, But Sen. Corzine Came All The Way From Washington DC To Swear In Varano

Bayville: The fact that U. S. Sen. John Corzine would come all the way to Berkeley from Washington D. C. to swear in Mayor Jason Varano for a second term is a pretty good indication that Varano is regarded as a rising star in the Democratic Party.

There is already pressure on Varano to run for the Board of Freeholders in a year when the GOP board monopoly has a potential for vulnerability.

Chances Are "Dead Zero" As Long As Potter Is County Chairman

But Varano knows, like any other Democrat with more than half a normal brain, that his chances of being elected on the county or legislative levels are dead zero until the Democratic county leadership is adjusted to get rid of county chairman Fred Potter.

To say that Potter is a bad actor, and that his bad act is an ambulatory disaster, is an understatement.

In meaningful ways, Potter is the Democrat equivalent of the mendacious, inept and clumsy Republican who ran against Varano, and was involutedly helpful in producing a near-record vote margin for the Democratic mayor.

Bunnell Trotted Out Stooges Who Lied

Charles "Chuck" Bunnell, a retired police "captain" who apparently couldn't pass the captain's examination for the Berkeley police department, trotted out a series of stooges during the campaign, apparently for the sole purpose of lying about Mayor Varano.

The tax increase Bunnell's stooges blamed Varano for was mostly a result of excessive salary increases in the police department (including a $20,000 one for Bunnell the year before he retired) and the policy disasters of one Christine Todd Whitman, who used to be the Republican governor of New Jersey.

Then one of the stooges charged Varano gave himself an excessive salary increase, a charge that was even dumber in view of Varano's status as the lowest paid ($8500) directly elected township Mayor in Ocean County.

$500 OCP "Shakedown" By Impulsive Bunnell Stooge

Then there was the impulsive website operator, hired by Bunnell, who tried to shake down OceanCountyPolitics for a $500 "contribution", ostensibly for the use of Bunnell's "official" campaign mug shot, a really bad picture that all of the other media types were permitted to use for nothing.

It smelled like a shakedown; it waddled like a shakedown, but Bunnell said it was only an attempt to intimidate OCP, which was circulating some richly deserved criticism of Bunnell at the time.

Bunnell, his foot permanently imbedded in his mouth, made a lot of other really stupid charges against Varano (like the mayor was a health insurance "double dipper", when the double dippers turned out to be Bunnell and his wife); the charges all had one thing in common: None of them were true, a contingency the public saw through with 20/20 clarity times 3300.

Largest Margin Of Any Local Candidate In Ocean County

So Varano won the election by more than 3300 votes, the largest margin of any local candidate in Ocean County in 2003, and the second largest margin of any local candidate in the history of Berkeley Township.

“I look out here and see so many friends and so many familiar faces and so many human stories that are the bricks and mortar of our community, this day takes on a special meaning for me,” the mayor noted as he was sworn in last week by Sen. Corzine.

Changes In His Personal Life, Some Sad. Some Happy

Varano also noted the changes that have taken place in his personal life since he became mayor five years ago following the death of former Mayor Bill Zimmermann, whom he called “a friend and mentor.”

Varano is married now and his wife, Jen, expecting the couple’s first baby later this month, stood with him as he took the oath of office, as did his father, Robert Varano.

On a sad note, he recalled that both his grandfather, Angelo Castrogiovanni, and his mother, Kathy, passed away during his recent term: “I still think of them both every day,” he said.

What About The future?

What about the future? Varano’s name is at the top of every Democratic short list for county or state office, and considerable pressure has been generated for him to lead the Democratic Party ticket in a year when three seats - and control, of the all-Republican freeholder board - are up for grabs.

But as long as county Democrats retain the current county chairman - Potter has a terminal political death wish, and a well earned and hard-to-shake reputation for clumsiness and incompetence - and just a touch of corruption, Varano and other progressive Democratic possibilities would regard a run for county office as an exercise in futility.

With Potter Out Of The Way, Who Knows?

But with Potter out of the way, and his larcenous sidekick "Doctor" Jack Moriarty gone the way of most extortionists, and with a new Democratic county chairman who really wants to

win - maybe somebody like Pine Beach Mayor Russell Corby, who called Mayor Varano "one of the best and the brightest" at the Mayor's swearing-in ceremony as Sen. Corzine looked on - who knows?

We have ample evidence that anything is possible: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”, the saying goes, and Mayor Varano obviously has the talent and youthful exuberance that is far from out of gas, prime ingredients that would be hard to ignore.

More about the Berkeley blow-out in November as time marches irrepressibly on, and more about the Potter disaster, and more about Mayor Corby's own swearing-in (ran unopposed in a town with a predominant Republican registration majority) and a look at the future, in Berkeley Update Part III.            (for 1/12/04)

© Copyright 2003-2007 Ocean County Politics .com. All Rights Reserved.
Questions & Comments: gvgeditor@aol.com