Camden County’s Rogue Republican Has To Go

Vincent Squire

I rarely contribute to our blog because I’m more of a voice guy, the talent if you will. Because of this Steve Kush does 98% of the work on our blog but for this particular post, he couldn’t contribute because it would be a professional conflict of interest. Kush is consulting to many of the Camden County Republican candidates this year and that’s his conflict. I did, however, ‘interview’ Kush over breakfast after our show Saturday.

It looks like one of the Republican freeholder candidates in Camden County needs to drop out of the race. The Camden County Republican Party certainly has been trying to get him to resign from the ticket. His name is Vincent Squire. The more I learn about him, the less I think he should be given the benefit of any doubt.

I, like many other Republicans, had heard grumblings about Squire, but I was a chairman once and I know it can be difficult to get candidates in tough races and you sometimes have to settle, so I paid little attention.

Then last week happened. A post on a blog I had never heard of started circulating on Facebook. I read it and then looked up more stuff on Squire. Hang on because I have a feeling this is going to be a long story.

So I read about Vincent Squire on this Rabblerouser blog.

After reading that blog post I have only one thing to say. Congratulations Mr. Squire on being the only African-American I have ever heard of to try to stop the installation of a plaque honoring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King.

To make matters worse the plaque memorializes the first civil rights incident in which King was involved. On top of that, the plaque Squire was trying to stop had already been installed.

This alone is enough to give Squire the idiot of the year award. But it gets worse!

Squire has a checkered past. A checkered past disqualifies no one. The late, great former Philly city councilman Jimmy Tayoun proved second chances can be success stories.

I’m not going to go much into Squire’s checkered past, the blog Positively Pennsauken does a good job with that stuff, scroll through it if you want more information. I will say I asked Kush about it and he explained, “We knew about the white collar stuff, Vince was very open about that. We could live with it because he turned it into a positive by doing volunteer work to prevent recidivism and volunteering with a prison ministry. But he failed to disclose some other stuff and every time we asked he blamed it on a bitter divorce with his ex wife.”

I pressed and Kush explained that the CCGOP Chairman, Political Director and Kush all met with Squire on August 10 and asked him to drop out of the race. Squire didn’t drop out. The chairman asked again in an email, still Squire refused. A third time Friday night in a text, still Squire refuses to drop out.

What happened to three strike and you’re out?

Squire’s had more than three strikes. According to Kush, one of his running mates told him to drop out and the other running mate told him to do the right thing.

I asked Kush if the fact Squire left some of his past out of his story is the reason they asked Squire to drop out and Kush told me, “No, we want him out because we learned he has a second degree assault charge pending against him in Superior Court, which county we don’t know because he’s told us different stories, and the charge is against his own teenage son. We learned about it after exposing the Arthur Barclay incident. Vince explained it away telling us it was a minor thing that his ex-wife blew out of proportion. Obviously his explanation was a lie. As an organization we’ve gone after Barclay and now we’re going after Paul Dougherty in Haddon Township, keeping Vince on the ticket would be hypocritical.”

There’s a lot more stuff out there but I don’t want to embarrass Squire any more than I have to.

I considered calling Squire to set up an interview, but then I stumbled upon a video of Squire threatening a blogger who attempted an interview.

Nope! Not happening. I will not sit down with this guy.

Vincent Squire, do the Republican Party and yourself a favor and drop out of the race NOW. With trying to stop the installation of a plaque honoring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, a second degree assault charge and a video of you threatening a blogger you are a giant embarrassment.

Haddon Township Documents From A Citizen's OPRA Request

Paul Dougherty

We can't seem to escape the saga of Haddon Township Commissioner Paul Dougherty and his hit and run accident. Not only is he a commissioner, Dougherty is also the municipal prosecutor in Cherry Hill, Clementon and Gloucester City. He should have known better than to (a) be driving on an expired license and (b) leave the scene of an accident.

It turns out rumors the Commissioner initially tried to blame his wife were true. He told the Police Chief his wife hit the other car and left the scene. This email, obtained through an OPRA request proves this to be true:

The second document is the official police report:

And finally, we have the official police activity logs from the night of the accident:

And, there you have it, all the information necessary to prove we haven't been wrong to stay on top of this story. 

This Gloucester County GOP Chair Is Putting In The Effort

Gloucester County GOP Chair Jacci Vigilante (from gcrepublicans.com)

I admit it, I haven’t always been warm and fuzzy with the county party where I live. The previous county chair didn’t much like me and, to be honest, I wasn’t his biggest fan either. My problem was that the town in which I am the GOP municipal chair, Greenwich Township, was treated as the proverbial red-headed step child, despite having the currently longest serving Republican mayor in the county. You might think the former leadership might try to help the guy a little bit. Instead it was, “Oh, they’re fine. They raise their own money, blah, blah…” It never seemed to matter that the Democrats always have a target on the mayor’s back.

Fast forward to the present and all I can is the new Gloucester County chairwoman, Jacci Vigilante, is putting in the effort. From the new and improved website to now hosting a monthly breakfast, which I unfortunately cannot attend as I’ll be doing the radio show with Bob, and a monthly Gloucester County Happy Hour designed to build some camaraderie among the rank-and-file, something that’s been missing in Glouco for years.

Not only is Vigilante trying to build camaraderie, she’s making the effort to rebuild previously burned bridges. She took the time to sit with Greenwich Township Mayor George Shivery and me in a meeting brokered by state GOP Executive Director Theresa Winegar, and trust me, Vigilante knew she was heading into hostile territory. Vigilante did as a party leader should and worked to rebuild a bridge that had been, not just burned, nuked by the previous chair.

I’m not always the easiest guy to get along with, as I explained to Vigilante when I introduced my mayor, “Everyone loves George, me, I’m an acquired taste.” She made the effort, there is now peace between the county and municipal parties. Even better, she gets that in my role as a municipal chair my chief responsibility is to support my elected officials above all else and that anyone, regardless of party, taking a shot at or disrespecting my mayor will suffer the consequences.

Gloucester County’s new GOP Chairwoman is not relying on what others have to say and is actively meeting with fellow Republicans and forming her own opinions. In other words, she’s acting like a leader. She’s giving Glouco Republicans a reason to get a little excited.

She’s got some opportunities coming up. There’s a special election in the 5th district for assembly. The district is shared with Camden County and not very winnable but, working with the folks in Camco it’s possible to put together a spirited campaign. Vigilante also has to choose a consensus candidate for the special election for County Surrogate.

Bottom line: Vigilante is doing a good job, especially considering the condition the previous chair left the party in. She’s light years ahead of the last chair. Let’s hope she can keep it up.