"They'll believe anything you tell 'em, as long as they think it's what I want; we'll get this cleared up when I get back," said the voice.

"OK, Boss, we'll take care of it," said the stalwart.

"The Mail House Did It"

Forty-five minutes later, a gathering of eighty out of the more than five hundred paper Dover Township Republican Club members, wondering why they couldn't vote on By-laws changes designed to maintain the power of GOP Boss Richard Clement, were told that some of the faithful had not received their amendment copies.

"The mail house did it," said Garry Mundy with a straight face, "they didn't send out the mail to the list we gave them, so we'll have to postpone the vote 'til next month."

The "mail house" confirmed later they sent out exactly what they were asked to send - no more, no less.

"Unspecified Legal Services"

Attorney Mundy, the proud recipient of a no-bid township pay-for-play contract for $30,000 in  "unspecified legal services" a couple of weeks ago, told the assembled faithful the By-laws amendments would be voted on March 19th, and ratified the following week, after the By-laws changes were sent out to the correct members list.

(Editor's Note: The $30,000 no-bid Mundy contract ran out in July, so Mayor Brush and the Republican council, led by pay-for-play lawyer and council president Gregory McGuckin, hired Mundy to a full-time $85,000 job in the township attorney's office, the third lawyer in an office that could easily get by with two. So much for cost-effectiveness & economical government.)

Clement, currently president of the local GOP, has been promising every year to retire, but every year he changes his mind.

The By-laws changes, recommended by Clement, would allow the designation of a new club president, reportedly former Planning Board Chairman Juan Carlos Bellu, but would emasculate the club presidency and allow Clement to retain all of the actual power.

Bellu Would Have Little Authority

If Bellu became organization president, he would have very little power of his own, because the proposed By-laws amendments would allow Clement, affectionately known as "Boss Clement" by the few members who still attend the club meetings, to continue to dominate the selection of candidates and the distribution of taxpayer-funded patronage, some of it tainted with the kind of latter day nepotism that makes taxpayers want to throw up.

Clement controls much of the patronage doled out by the GOP. It was only recently that a contingent of no-bid, pay-for-play lawyers, mostly  Republican drones recommended and approved by Clement, were named "special" attorneys for the township by Mayor Paul Brush and the GOP council at a total cost of about $500,000.