Democracy is not free....

...it is something that has to be fought for and protected by each citizen every day or we will all lose it. I find it absurd that we have troops in foreign lands fighting to establish democracy there while we take our own for granted right here.

Last week's Westfield Leader has a press release from Freeholder Daniel Sullivan which attacks GOP candidate Patrica Quotrocchi's recent press releases to the same paper. Studying county government the past two years I find it alarming how this one party ruled government becomes more arrogant and full of themselves by the day and almost seems to command us mere peasants to worship them. If anyone dares question them they go into attack mode to squelch any uprising.

Listed under a heading 'Union County News' Freeholder Daniel Sullivan speaks of the GOP's website as tired and the same old website with the same old candidates with a total lack of vision for Union County. He goes on to arrogantly ask GOP freeholder candidate Patricia Quatrocchi "maybe your next campaign release can explain why the GOP hasn't won a countywide election since 1994".

I'd like to direct Freeholder Sullivan to another website for the answer www.unioncountywatchdog.org. This site will give several explanations as to why no one has been successful at beating the Democrats in a county wide election since 1994.

It will tell him how the all Democrat Freeholder board used approximately $607,939.66 in tax dollars in 2003 and $379,062.80 in 2004 in the weeks leading up to the elections on commercials and mailers mostly featuring the incumbent freeholders.

It will tell him of the $72,000 yearly no bid contract with Message and Media for media consulting services which the county has no documentation to show the public what they do for this money. It will also tell him that the Democrats also have a contract with this same firm to handle their freeholder campaigns, and the result is that a constituent would be hard pressed to tell a campaign mailer from a government mailer.

It will also tell him how the county's Office Of Public Information, who's employees I have personally seen on the campaign trail the past two years, won't tell what their budget is or even give an accurate accounting as to the days off that these employees took in 2003 and 2004. This is the department that churns out press releases ad nauseum featuring campaigning freeholders - and this website will tell him the exact numbers of these press releases per freeholder.

Freeholder Sullivan, always the one to be nastily attacking anyone who dares to challenge his 'partners' by participating in the democratic process, or whatever is left of that in Union County, brings up that no GOP candidates ever attended budget hearings. He doesn't mention that there is no input allowed from the public at these hearings and, as is true at freeholder meetings, the public would not be able to have questions answered.

Lastly, I attended several freeholder meetings last year and I never saw the freeholders who where appointed at various times for various reasons - John Wohlrab, Bette Jane Kowalski, Adrian Mapp or Nancy Ward - at any of them. My husband also ran for office the year before and I can't say I ever knew who these people where or what their visions were for Union County before they were appointed to their seats by the Union County Democratic powerbroker and puppet master Charlotte DeFallipo.

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I've been out of town all week and I see that Bob M, while he can ignorantly slander me in the Star-Ledger while trying to gain favor with the democratic committee and get some work for his business, can't take it when people have something to say back to him. This class is labeled 'Marketing Your Business' in 101 Bottom Feeders school.

Anyway, since Bob has followed his peers in attacking democracy by limiting freedom of speech unless you agree with them, and we can no longer have people post on this blog; please feel free to contact me directly at: tinarenna@unioncountywatchdog.org