The OC Observer says the Republican candidate in Berkeley's 4th Ward backed by County Chairman George Gilmore, local Chairman Carmen Amato and GOP Vice-President Richard Ciullo is 67 year old Brisbane Court resident Hugh Krone.

OCP tried to obtain a photo of Mr. Krone, but his is one of two photos that is not even featured on the Berkeley Republican website, but we will keep trying, as we provide free publicity to the views of all serious candidates.

First Utterance As A Candidate
Is False Double-Dipping Charge

Mr. Krone may be a very nice person, and may even have something to recommend him as a candidate for all we know, but his first utterance as part of the Republican campaign was to charge Mayor Jason Varano with double-dipping on taxpayer-funded health insurance policies.

Charge Was Made, Discredited In '03

What Mr. Krone may not have known was that this charge was made and completely discredited two years ago when Varano ran for re-election and won big, partially because the Republican opposition - including Amato, Ciullo, Gilmore, GOP President Anthony DiPaola and Mayoral candidate Charles Bunnell - made up and circulated a series of charges that the public recognized as baseless.

The local GOP organization leaders are also elected members of Berkeley and Central Regional school boards, where they have been charged with politicizing school board business.

Bunnell Ended Up With Egg On His Face In '03 As
Former Mayor Leake, A Republican, Emerged As Berkeley's Most Notorious Double-Dipper

Bunnell made the double-dip health insurance charge without checking the facts, and ended up with egg all over his face when it turned out that the charge was not only untrue, but that the most notorious health insurance double-dipper in Berkeley township was one of the county Republican patronage recipients helping to run the Bunnell campaign, none other than the Director of the Ocean County Consumer Protection Department, former Berkeley Mayor Kenneth Leake.

Krone Should Carefully Check Any
Data Offered By Amato Or Ciullo

Mr. Krone may no doubt wish to check very carefully any data that is spoon fed to him by Ciullo or Amato from now on, because he has now become one of a long line of Berkeley Republicans who have jeopardized election success by lying, however gullibly, about Mayor Varano and the public record.

YR Leader Clammed Up When He Found
He Was Talking About Leake, Not Varano

When Young Republican leader Scott Martin believed the Ciullo-Amato double-dip heath insurance misinformation, for example, he shot from the hip and called the double-dip scam "stealing from the taxpayers," which indeed it was, but he clammed up when he found out that he was talking about Leake, not Varano.

Crawled Into A Hole With "Stealing
From Taxpayers" Charges When Bulk
Of Double-Dippers Were Republicans

Martin crawled into a hole and pulled the top in over him when he was advised that 95% of the health insurance double-dippers in Ocean County were Republicans, including former lottery director Virginia Haines, Dover Township Republican Club President Richard Clement and his wife, DMUA commissioner Deborah "Double-Dippin' Debbie" Clement, Ocean County Freeholder John Bartlett Freeholder Jim Lacey, Freeholder Jack Kelly and Freeholder Joseph Vicari, also Berkeley School Superintendent, in addition to former Mayor and county Consumer Affairs director Leake.

More Krone Charges May Be False As Well

More on these issues as Berkeley Republicans continue to shoot themselves in the foot (what else is new?) in the fullness of burgeoning time.

Click Here For: "Who's Going To Protect The
Consumers From The Consumer Protection Director??

Click Here To Reprise '03 Berkeley Double-Dip Issues Including Bunnell-Ciullo OCP $500 Shakedown Attempt

This article prepared for publication 7/10/05.