One Big Difference Between Camden County Democrats And Republicans

Arthur Barclay, Paul Dougherty & Vincent Squire

Former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay, Haddon Township Commissioner Paul Dougherty and Camden County Freeholder candidate Vincent Squire all have one thing in common. They screwed up and got themselves into legal troubles.

Two are Democrats. One is a Republican. All three had brushes with the law.

The difference is Camden County Republicans are trying to clean their own house, Camden County Democrats, not so much.

Barclay got in trouble with his arrest on domestic violence charges. The case against him was dismissed because the complainant did not appear in court to testify. Barclay admitted the incident happened, telling the New Jersey Globe, “I don’t want to talk about it. It is what it is. It happened. I just want to move forward.” Camden County Democrats kept the Barclay incident quiet for 11 days and did nothing until County Republicans brought the issue to the public.

Dougherty got in trouble when he drove his car into the back of another and left the scene. The incident happened on July 19 and didn’t become public until the Courier-Post broke the story on August 8, almost three weeks after the fact.

Dougherty also happens to be the municipal prosecutor in three Democratic controlled municipalities. Camden County Republicans have called on Dougherty to, at the very least, step down as a prosecutor. Still nothing but crickets from the Democrats.

Squire has a checkered past, but Republicans were willing to overlook that past because as CCGOP Chairman wrote to party members, “Vince paid for his earlier conviction, pleading guilty and serving time in prison.  After completing his probation, he used his past mistakes to help others, volunteering at anti-recidivism programs and prison ministry work. When we selected Vince as one of our candidates, knowing only that, it seemed like a compelling story of a young man who worked hard, found success, then threw it all away by making a few greedy, bad decisions, but who was using those mistakes to try and help others from choosing a similar path.”

Unfortunately, County Republicans learned “there were other more recent brushes with the law that Vince did not fully disclose or sought to conceal outright.” After confirming that these more recent pending charges do indeed exist, County Republicans asked Squire to resign, several times. He refused, so the CCGOP disavowed Squire.

And, that’s the difference between the two major parties in Camden County – Democrats are happy to circle the wagons around office holders who are accused of or actually admit to violating the law and Republicans try to purge accused lawbreakers from the party. It’s obvious who holds the moral high ground in Camden County.

Camden County GOP Disavows Vincent Squire

Camden County Republicans rightly issued a statement disavowing freeholder candidate Vincent Squire.

Prior to issuing their release, CCGOP Chairman Ambrosino sent a message to “all CCGOP members,” informing party membership of the decision and why the decision was made.

Ambrosino wrote to his membership, in part:

Vince paid for his earlier conviction, pleading guilty and serving time in prison.  After completing his probation, he used his past mistakes to help others, volunteering at anti-recidivism programs and prison ministry work.  When we selected Vince as one of our candidates, knowing only that, it seemed like a compelling story of a young man who worked hard, found success, then threw it all away by making a few greedy, bad decisions, but who was using those mistakes to try and help others from choosing a similar path.

But over the past several weeks, it was brought to my attention, and the attention of others within our organization, that there were other more recent brushes with the law that Vince did not fully disclose or sought to conceal outright.  After confirming that these more recent pending charges do indeed exist, I confronted Vince along with our Political Director Tom Crone and our campaign consultant Steve Kush.  We asked Vince to resign from the ballot, as these new revelations would not only cause great harm to his own candidacy, but to that of his running mates and potentially others in the Republican column in Camden County.

Ambrosino concluded his message to county Republicans:

As Vince cannot be forcibly removed from the ballot, we will move forward in full support of Keith Cybulski and Claire Gustafson for Freeholder.  I thank you for your dedication to our Party and look forward to a spirited and successful General Election effort.

In the organization’s press release Ambrosino, wisely explains, “As a Party we cannot have any affiliation with Mr. Squire. Nor will we have any affiliation with any candidate that may choose to continue to support Mr. Squire.”

The CCGOP press release follows:

CCGOP Candidate Refuses To Resign; He’s On His Own Now

Republicans disavow their candidate after he refuses to resign

CHERRY HILL – Camden County Republican Party officials, two weeks ago, asked one of their freeholder candidates, Vincent Squire, to sign a letter resigning from the ticket. He has refused.

At issue, it was learned that Vincent Squire was not completely honest about his checkered past. The organization had taken Squire at his word when he acknowledged his past, paid for a crime he had committed nearly eight years ago, and turned it into a positive by doing volunteer work to prevent recidivism and volunteering with a prison ministry.

Unfortunately, Squire only told part of the story to Party officials and conveniently left out a burglary conviction, that he has used an alias, and has a current second-degree assault charge filed against him by his own son, which is pending in Superior Court.

Party officials confronted Squire two weeks ago with this information and asked him to resign from the ticket. Squire declined to resign and continues to decline after several more requests from Party Chairman, Richard Ambrosino and Squire’s own running mates.

“I feel terrible airing dirty laundry in public but we were conned Ambrosino said. “As a Party we cannot have any affiliation with Mr. Squire. Nor will we have any affiliation with any candidate that may choose to continue to support Mr. Squire. As of now we are running only two Republican candidates because Squire refuses to do the right thing.”

“To make matters worse we know Mr. Squire has accepted at least one cash contribution at an event a month ago and has yet to turn it in or report it to ELEC,” Camden GOP Political Director Tom Crone explained, “It may have been a small contribution, but one has to wonder if he’s taken other cash contributions. Mr. Squire has spun one too many tales and it is time for him to go. As an organization we cannot continue to point out the wrongs done by Democrats and not clean our own house.”

“We knew from the beginning Squire had some white-collar type stuff that he paid for and turned into a positive,” Camden County GOP’s political consultant Steve Kush said. “Then as we learned more, asked questions and were given conflicting or unsatisfactory answers. Then we learned of some other issues and the second-degree assault and it became too much. Now Squire is on his own.”

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NJGOP Woman Of The Year

Former Lt Gov Kim Guadagno

With the buildup to what could have been an exciting meeting in Haddon Township last night I completely forgot the NJGOP was honoring former Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno as the "Woman of the Year." Fortunately, the state GOP takes The Bob & Steve Show seriously and they’ve added us to their media list.

Here is NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt’s statement on the event:

NJGOP Chairman Statement On Successful Woman of the Year Reception

Trenton, NJ - Last night the NJGOP hosted a fundraiser in Red Bank that honored former Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno as the "Woman of the Year". Chairman Doug Steinhardt made the following statement about the event:

"I'm encouraged by the more than 250 attendees who turned out last night at our NJGOP fundraiser honoring Kim Guadagno as the 'Woman of the Year.' I appreciate the many supporters who picked a hot August night to invest in our commitment to restore common sense and fiscal accountability to NJ government. With our new team, we are building tremendous momentum in New Jersey and are on track to vote out corrupt Senator Bob Menendez and stop Nancy Pelosi from taking over our Congressional delegation."

Despite the fact she served under former Governor Chris Christie, Guadagno was able to build a lot of good will in South Jersey.

Rather than drone on about how she built that good will, I’ll let a November 2, 2015 article from NJ.com with the headline “Little love for the gov outside Christie’s Camden police visit” do the talking:

"Chris Christie does not get a free pass in Camden," said state Assembly candidate Keith Walker. "The man has no loyalty."

The latter sentiment is something county Republicans could certainly attest to.

"The governor goes to Ocean, Burlington or Atlantic counties and those Republican chairmen are notified; he comes to Camden or Gloucester -- the heart of (George) Norcross country -- our chairman learns from the newspaper and the governor stands with our opponents. It's unacceptable, and will no longer be tolerated," said Steve Kush, campaign manager for the Camden County GOP's election efforts.

"Four visits to the county to support a Democratic party boss and his machine politicians is too many," Kush continued, adding that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno does not draw the same ire from Camden County Republicans.

"We love her. She's supportive of all Republican candidates," Kush said.

Good choice Chairman and congratulations Kim!