Sweeney Makes CWA Cower

by: firstamend07

Sat Oct 25, 2008 at 09:19:56 AM EDT

Here is a synopsis of the money race as written in today's Gloucester County Times:

Saturday, October 25, 2008
By Pete McCarthy
pmccarthy@sjnewsco.com
The Republican Party in Gloucester County has not yet met its lofty goal of raising $100,000 for the 2008 freeholder campaign.

In fact, since the last campaign finance report was filed 18 days ago, the candidates have only been able to collect an additional $2,476. That brings their grand total to a little more than $30,000.

Their Democrat opponents, on the other hand, brought in more than $180,000 during that same two-week period, according to contribution and expenditure reports released on Friday.

"People who committed early on said they rethought it at the last minute and decided that they don't want to make an enemy of (Freeholder Director and state Senator) Steve Sweeney because they have to deal with him in Trenton," said Steve Kush, communications director for the county Republicans.

Kush had previously stated that the party was looking to get substantial financial support from all around the state.

Sweeney, who is seeking re-election to the freeholder board, said he had heard that there were some unions in Trenton "threatening" to unload between $800,000 and $1 million on attack ads against him. The freeholder said it was because of the pension reform legislation that he sponsored in his role as Senate majority leader.

"My labor friends were responding to threats being made by state unions," said Sweeney. "When these other unions heard about it, they responded pretty strongly to balance it out."

As more politicians catch on to CWA and discover that their political leadership team is all bark and no bite the " myth" of the " powerful" state worker union will be destroyed.