Dear Editor:
Republican candidate for Assembly in New Jersey’s 26th District, John Cesaro called on BettyLou DeCroce to “stop relying on half-truths and innuendo to hide from her own shortcomings and talk about issues.”
A day after Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce attempted to turn what one official called “a paperwork snafu” into a campaign issue John Cesaro is fighting back.
Cesaro said, “My campaign has been an issues focused campaign and I’d like to keep it that way, but I will not allow BettyLou DeCroce’s continued cheap shots to go unanswered.”
Cesaro campaign manager Steve Kush added, “If DeCroce wants to attempt to make a paperwork snafu about character, fine, let’s compare the character of the candidates. Unlike DeCroce, John Cesaro never used his position of influence to get lighter duty for a relative performing community service. DeCroce has yet to explain what connections she may have used to make that incident go away.”
Kush asked, “Does DeCroce forget the fact that while she was the township clerk in Roxbury she requested a defendant serving community service do that service in her office? Does she forget that defendant was her nephew? Does she forget that her defendant nephew was, according to news accounts, ‘completing a juvenile probationary sentence for a minor role he had in a locker room sex scandal’ at the time she was getting him an easier community service assignment?”
“It didn’t require knowledge of the law to understand defendants were, and still are, prohibited from serving community service in a place where a relative held a position of influence. Commonsense would tell any reasonable person that,” Cesaro explained. “And, BettyLou DeCroce exercised about as much commonsense in Roxbury as she did in voting for the gas tax.”
“Because she is a part of a culture in Trenton that has gotten New Jersey into the mess we are in, I suspect BettyLou DeCroce will continue to try to drag this campaign into the gutter, and that’s her choice,” Cesaro said. “And, while I will defend myself from her constant cheap shots, I will also continue to offer ideas that can lead to solutions to make New Jersey safer by fixing the failing bail reform law, making school funding more fair to suburban districts and working to reduce the gas tax.”
Steve Kush
Source: Daily Record February 25, 2006; Daily Record December 16, 2005
