PARSIPPANY — Politics is always interesting but this week Fred Snowflack NJ Insider uncovered truths about a State Resolution passed by the NJ General Assembly. District 26 is under fire by their own! But PARSIPPANY could lose control of the State seat but this article gets to the heart of the issue. 40 years of loyalty to a party can not be ignored!
Jay Webber is doubling down on his assertion BettyLou DeCroce is an anti-cop radical, as reported in a story published in InsiderNJ.
But DeCroce has cops on her side. A recent DeCroce campaign piece says “BettyLou backs the blue” and urges voters to ignore the “lies being spread by her desperate opponents.”
This is the work of the State Troopers Fraternal Association.
Roxbury Police Chief Mark Noll (Ret.) and Police Chief James Simonetti (Ret.) support Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce’s re-election to the State General Assembly in District 26.
As Police Chiefs who worked with Assemblywoman DeCroce for over twenty years in local government, she was always an ardent supporter of law enforcement. We have had the pleasure of working side by side with the Assemblywoman in her official capacity in Roxbury Township. We always knew that she had our backs and ensured that we received the necessary funding to do our jobs and protect our community.
Morris County Sheriff James Gannon also supports DeCroce.
Whether a candidate backs police is an odd issue in a Republican primary, but it’s raging in LD-26, which is centered in Morris County and includes small parts of Essex and Passaic counties.
Both Webber and DeCroce are Assembly incumbents, but only Webber has been endorsed by the Morris County Republican Committee.
Webber’s partner is Christian Barranco, who the committee also endorsed.
Also in the race is Tom Mastrangelo, a Morris County Commissioner.
The police issue stems from DeCroce’s vote last year in support of making July 13 Black Lives Matter day in New Jersey. The bill speaks of urging police and others to work together in the name of solidarity and also acknowledges past injustices. In short, this was one of those symbolic votes public bodies commonly take.
And it really wasn’t controversial. No Assembly member voted “no,” although a number of them, Webber included, abstained. Other Morris County Legislators voted yes. Abstentions are useless! This begs an obvious question. If the bill was so heinous, why didn’t anyone push the “no” button?
But now that we’re in a primary fight, Webber is using the vote to link DeCroce to the “defund the police movement.”
A campaign piece last week accused DeCroce of supporting BLM’s radical agenda. And he reiterated that point this week.
The latest piece suggests DeCroce is an anti-Trump, anti-ICE, anti-cop radical. In case you miss the point, there’s a photo of someone holding a “Defund the Police” sign. No, it’s not DeCroce.
DeCroce’s rebuttal mailer says simply that she’s backed by the State Troopers Association.
As an overview, it’s hard to see where Webber, who hasn’t been interested in chatting about the race, is going with all this.
You would think that voters who care about the state Assembly, which is not a high-profile position, would know something about the candidates.
Are these voters really going to believe that DeCroce, who has been active in Republican politics for about 40 years, is a closet member of the Black Liberation Army? That seems doubtful, but Webber apparently sees things differently.
DeCroce has a long list of support from Republican officials throughout the district including Former Member of Congress Rodney P. Frelinghuysen.
List of Endorsements:
Morris Plains
Council President Art Bruhn (R)
Councilman Sal Cortese (R)
Councilwoman Cathie Kelly (R)
Councilman Dennis Wagner (R)
Parsippany
Council President Michael DePierro (R)
Council Vice President Loretta Gragnani (R)
Councilman Paul Carifi Jr. (R)
Montville
Mayor Frank Cooney (R)
Deputy Mayor Rich Cook (R)
Committeeman Richard Conklin (R)
Committeeman Matthew Kayne (R)
Jefferson
Mayor Eric Wilsusen (R)
Council President Melissa Senatore (R)
Council Vice President Jay Dunham (R)
Councilman Josh Kalish (R)
Councilman Bob Birmingham (R)
Councilman Ron Smith (R)
Kinnelon
Mayor James Freda (R)
Council President Vincent Russo (R)
Councilman Robert Roy (R)
Councilman Sean Mabey (R)
Councilman James Lorkowski (R)
Councilman Randall Charles (R)
Councilman Bill Yago (R)
Parts of this article were reprinted from InsiderNJ.com.
Updated Friday, May 28, 8:30 p.m.
