Kelly's Curious Campaign Kickoff

by: Juan Melli

Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 12:53:59 AM EST

Ocean County freeholder/raging homophobe Jack Kelly made a revealing choice for his campaign kickoff (emphasis mine):

Jack Kelly kicked off his campaign Tuesday for the 3rd District Republican primary in the conference room of county party Chairman George Gilmore's law firm.
Kelly, 56, said he chose the venue because its construction was not taxpayer funded, unlike his freeholder office around the block.

That is priceless. I'm surprised by two things. First, that Kelly would want to draw attention to or associate himself with corrupt Boss Gilmore at all (Okay, I'm not that surprised). But more importantly, that he would do so in the context of taxpayer money. Not taxpayer funded?

The Toms River law firm of Gilmore & Monahan, in which Gilmore is a partner, is paid more than $1 million annually from no-bid contracts in GOP-controlled municipalities.

Not only did tax-payer dollars indirectly fund the building in which he staged his kickoff, but it was done with dirty money. Gilmore's no-bid contracts are the "play" part of the corrupt pay-to-play equation, and it's the voters who got scammed on that deal.

Kelly is apparently opposed to using taxpayer dollars to construct government buildings, but doesn't care how it's used as long as that money is laundered through his corrupt friends.

Juan Melli :: Kelly's Curious Campaign Kickoff

Tags: Ocean County, George Gilmore, Jack Kelly, (All Tags)

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Kelly's Curious Campaign Kickoff | 2 comments

any preferences? (0.00 / 0)

As with the Republican Presidential field of candidates, I would be curious to know if anybody has a preference as to who they would like to see John Adler take on and why?

I think that it would be more satisfying to beat this guy than any other Republican who might run.

Conversely, I think that I would like to see John McCain win the Republican Presidential nomination, not necessarily because he would be easier to beat than any of the others (he might actually be the hardest to beat), but because he strikes me as the least onerous of the bunch.

That said, I have gone back and forth about this and would be curious to know what other people think.

by: Bertin Lefkovic @ Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 11:32:47 AM UTC

preferences, location (0.00 / 0)

Regarding who would be a preferable candidate between Myers and Kelly, I would consider Kelly to be the weakest link; BurlCo is a swing county that Myers makes more competitive, and the BurlCo organization seems stronger (thus more formidable in the general election.

Gilmore's law firm is a more than appropriate choice for the Ocean Co GOP to present their candidate to the press. Gilmore is pulling the levers here with Kelly, and he has control over county contracts that perhaps even bests Norcross' control. Perhaps the off-shoot of having Kelly in the race is that it will finally bring some media attention to the pay-to-play and corruption in the Ocean Co GOP.

by: Martin @ Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 15:37:12 PM UTC