Yesterday Camden County Republican Chairman Rich Ambrosino called out county Democrats for keeping former Assemblyman Arthur Barclay on the county government payroll. Barclay, you may recall, resigned his legislator position days after he was charged with simple assault during a domestic incident. Barclay admitted to the assault 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.”
Eventually, Barclay had his day in court. The girlfriend he admitted to punching did not show up, so in an unusual move the judge dismissed the case without prejudice. Usually in domestic violence cases the state picks up the charges if the victim doesn’t show up (according to several defense attorneys I spoke with). Also, for those of you who don’t spend a lot of time being served with papers or ending up in court “without prejudice” means the case could be refiled (for a period of time). That period of time has likely passed and obviously charges were never refiled. Barclay got off unscathed.
Throughout the ordeal Camden County Republicans did what they could to let taxpayers know that a guy who admitted to punching his girlfriend had a county job. After a county spokesman said that the situation would be “investigated by human resources as a personnel matter” Republicans asked in a press release, “Was an investigation launched? If so, what was the place? Was Barclay at least suspended pending the outcome of the investigation? Is this just another case of Camden County machine politics where they sweep their problems under the rug?”
From the same release:
“We don’t know what the outcome of Barclay’s scheduled July 20th court appearance will be,” Claire Gustafson said. “But, we do know he admitted to a reporter ‘it happened,’ and county residents have the right to know if a man who admitted to punching his girlfriend in the face, for whatever reason, is still on the county’s payroll, especially in the age of the MeToo movement. We also know that if Barclay were a Republican the machine Democrats would be calling for his head. Why the double standard? I know my running mates and I would never allow this to be swept under the rug and I hope our opponents feel the same.”
Here's the thing, until last week Camden County Machine Democrats did a good job ignoring questions from Republicans and hiding the fact that Barclay is still on the County payroll. If it wasn’t for a report by Matt Friedman at Politico folks wouldn’t know that Barclay moved to a different job in County government and got a pay raise.
The fact the former assemblyman still has a job in county government, got a raise, is still a member of the county Democratic party committee at the very least makes it appear Camden County (machine) Democrats really don’t care about #MeToo and #BelieveWomen nearly as much as their rhetoric says they do.
And, given the complete lack of any recent mention of Barclay on the South Jersey Progressive Democrats Facebook page or the Facebook page of the Collingswood Progressive Democrats they’re as full of crap on the issues of #MeToo and “BelieveWomen as the machine Democrats.
CCGOP Chairman Ambrosino was right when he said, “Only in Camden County can a guy who admitted to punching his girlfriend in the face be given a new job and a pay raise.” Apparently, it helps to be a Democrat too.
Will the BS in Camden ever stop? Time will tell. I suspect we’re going to be hearing more on this issue, so stay tuned.
