|
OCP Editor Rich Schiff |
Whitcraft Switches To
Independent
Schiff Editorial: Beach
Haven Mayor Has Had It With The "Corruption And Filth" in Both
Parties
Whitcraft Leaves The Democratic Party To Become An
Independent: Kavanagh Won't Run For Re-election In Brick
As a Democrat I am profoundly
embarrassed by the resignation from my party of The Hon.
Deborah Whitcraft, Mayor of Beach Haven, on Long Beach Island
in Ocean County.
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Kavanagh |
This follows the decision of
Gregory Kavanagh, Democratic Councilman in Brick, not to seek
re-election in 2005.
Sold Out By Their Own Party Leadership
You may or may not recall that
Judith Platt, Greg Kavanagh and Deborah Whitcraft were the
candidates for County Freeholders last year who were abandoned
and trashed by their own party leadership in a sellout to the
Republican county bosses in order to preserve a few scraps of
patronage for their cronies and relatives.
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Potter Sold Out The 2004
Democratic Ticket For A Few Scraps Of Patronage |
No effort was made to run an
effective campaign after the deal was cut between Ocean County
Republican Boss George Gilmore and the pathetic County
Democrat Boss Fred Potter.
Not only were the Freeholder
candidates thrown under the bus by their own leaders, as was
reported in the Ocean County Observer, but the ball was
dropped locally for the Kerry Edwards Team as well.
I reached out to the Freeholder
candidates and got to know and meet Mr. Kavanagh, himself a
devoted public servant and a serious Democrat.
New
Democrats Of Ocean County Ran The Only
Real Ads For Democratic Freeholder Candidates
We (New Democrats Of Ocean
County) ran the only ads for the Freeholder Team until the
embarrassed County Dems finally put up some lame TV spots, too
little and far too late, designed only to draw the heat away
from their own perfidy.
Though Mayor Whitcraft and
Judith Platt stayed as loyal as possible to the discredited
County Party, her leaving the party this week, in this
writer's humble opinion, was due in no small measure to the
double-cross inflicted on the political process by Potter and
other county leadership Democrats.
And, also, t hat
most certainly influenced Greg Kavanagh’s decision not to run
this year.
So We Lost Two Young Officials With Star Quality
So their you have it: the Ocean County Democratic leaders, starving for
talent, have lost (through their own stupidity, incompetence
and treachery) two relatively young public officials with some
measure of star quality and competence.
Mayor Whitcraft cited Pay To
Play payoffs in both major parties as a major reason for her
leaving the Democratic Party.
Scores
"Pay-To-Play Payoffs & Pension Padding"
Cites "Corruption And Filth" In Both Parties
“Now I know why pay-to-play,
pension-padding and dual office holding will never end,
Richard. The corruption and filth permeates both parties • •
”, she wrote to me with a reference to the story about her
resignation in the Atlantic City Press
Though it pained me to realize
that the Democrats had lost a real feather in their cap when
they lost this respected Mayor, it also hurt that they lost a person who had
come to the Party after an earlier Republican experience
because she believed the Democrats were a party of reform!
Whitcraft Is
An Independent Now
“Being an "independent" works
for me," she said.
"Now I’m not pressured to do
what's "right" for the "party" as opposed to what’s right for
the people works for me,” she wrote, after I told her I had no
choice but respect her decision.
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Gilmore
Was Happy To Do Business With Potter As Democratic
Freeholder Candidates Were Sold Out |
I
salute her for her courage,
when so many sit by silently and know in their hearts that
there is not one iota of righteousness in the decisions County
leadership made to enter a collusive deal with the GOP to
plunder the body politic.
Honest
People Still In elected Office
Perhaps this shows there are
honest people still in elected office. Mayor Whitcraft had
nothing to gain in her choice, but dignity, as she made her
escape from the cesspool of Pay-To-Play politics.
- - -
Rich Schiff
"Corruption And Filth" In
Both Parties? Click Here For Some Pay-To-Play Fun In The
Peoples Republic Of Dover
• • • And Brick
• • •
And Berkeley Schools
• • •
And • • •
This story prepared for
publication 3/18/05. |
