Will "pay to play" sink Bergen Democrats?

by: Adam L

Thu Oct 21, 2010 at 11:15:00 AM EDT

Last night, you hopefully had a chance to listen to Bergen County Freeholder candidate Camille Abate on Blue Jersey Radio talking about her independent candidacy for Freeholder. Or, earlier this week, you may have seen or read about the Bergen County Freeholder debate, where pay-to-play was been one of the big issues.

What is interesting here is that while Abate, a lifelong Democrat running as an independent, Green Party candidate Irwin Nack and at least one of the Republican candidates (Maura DeNicola) are in favor of strict pay-to-play reforms, the three Democratic incumbents didn't have much to say on the issue. What is more interesting is that the two "new" Republican Freeholders were pushing for pay-to-play reform over the past year - only to be rebuffed by many of the sitting Democratic Freeholders. So an issue that, in Abate's words, "the Republicans invented and the Democrats perfected", has become one that may flip the Bergen County Freeholders from a 7-0 Democratic domination to only two Democrats left after the election.

A video on the issue for Camille (disclaimer: I created the video) is below, with more commentary below the fold:

(more below)

Adam L :: Will "pay to play" sink Bergen Democrats?

In an environment where New Jerseyans are used to (and sick of) pay-to-play and corruption on all levels, it is interesting that this is something that the Democrats on the Bergen Freeholder Board aren't pushing for. What makes this more baffling is that in the last election, the two incumbent Democrats were badly beaten (coming in 3rd and 4th out of 4) in the wake of the corruption cloud surrounding the BCDO and ties to former Chairman Joe Ferriero, and that two of the three Democrats running now (Jim Carroll and Elizabeth Calabrese) could very easily use pay-to-play reform as a way to distance themselves from "the old guard", while the third (John Hogan) was just appointed this year and could use this as a way to stand out as a change from the past.

This isn't to say that the election is a referendum on the national Democratic Party - not by a longshot. The BCRO is as big a mess as the BCDO. But the stench of "business as usual" on the part of BCDO's leadership should have already served as a wake-up call for those running on a County level. More likely, it will take a sweep (and 5 straight Democratic Freeholder losses) to make the BCDO leadership wake up and realize what many within the Democratic Party have been screaming for years.

Tags: Democrats, republicans, Independents, freeholder, election, (All Tags)

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Will "pay to play" sink Bergen Democrats? | 1 comments

Bergen Dems (4.00 / 2)

And their leaving the drive for pay-to-play reforms to any other Party, is one of the biggest disappointments of the 2010 cycle. With their history, they should have been out front. Imagine that world.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Thu Oct 21, 2010 at 15:53:00 PM UTC