The Courier - November 1, 2007

Byrnes fires back at GOP
M'town Committee candidate charges, that Reps, were deceptive in recent mailer

By JIM PURCELL

    According to Middletown Democratic Chairman Joseph Caliendo, Republicans sent out mailers to township residents that were "intentionally misleading and false."
    "The Middletown Republican Party sent out a mailer that stated Sean Byrnes, the Middletown Democratic candidate for Township Committee, had created a '$10 million property tax plan' as a Red Bank school board member that was disapproved by voters there," Caliendo said. "In fact, Mr. Byrnes was not even on the Red Bank school board when the 1999 budget was created, nor when it was adopted by the school board there."
    According to Byrnes, who is a Red Bank attorney, he was appointed to the school board during late April 1999 to fill an unexpired term. Subsequently, he served about nine months in office.
    However, Byrnes noted that that body adopted the 1999 Red Bank school budget during March of that year, before he was sworn in. Additionally, the budget was crafted during1998, so he had no say whatsoever about the expenditures involved in the plan.
    Eventually, the Red Bank Borough Council disapproved the board's budget. But, "I had nothing to do with creating that plan or voting on it," Byrnes said.
    Byrnes characterized the attack by the campaign of Middletown Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger and his running mate, newcomer Tristan Nelsen, as "plain wrong."
    Byrnes said, "I was not even aboard and had nothing to do with that budget."
    Caliendo said Scharfenberger and Nelsen have "ventured into making outright untruthful statements about their opposition at the polls."
    The veteran Middletown Democratic chairman said the use of "derision and venomous attacks are nothing new to the Middletown Republican Party in dealing with opposition, which is why the township is in the shape that it is today."
    Caliendo said the issues he and other Democrats have pointed to throughout the years have been rooted in "more than 25 years of corruption" that has taken place under the control of one party in town.
    "This particular election is about turning the tide in Middletown, lowering taxes and ending corruption and nepotism in government. With three Democrats on the Middletown Committee, that is enough votes to change the way government works and it will result in tax savings - and the Republican candidates seem more than willing to be as deceptive as they think they can to hold back the tide," Caliendo said.
    Caliendo said that neither Scharfenberger nor Nelsen have returned any calls on this matter from supporters within his party.
    "There has to be a fundamental change about the way that politics is done in this township," Caliendo said. "The way it appears to me, there is far too much sarcasm, partisanship and mean-spirited competition where it involves the process whereby public officials are selected by the residents. For the Democratic Party's part, Mr. Byrnes and his running mate, Janet Moscuzza, have been nothing but supportive of a kind of government that serves every resident, and not just Republicans in town."
    Caliendo said that both Scharfenberger and Nelsen are running as "reformers" to lower taxes, but with Scharfenberger being a well-entrenched incumbent, Caliendo noted, "Just what is Mr. Scharfenberger reforming? The mistakes he and other Republicans have made in office over the years in Middletown? It has been Mr. Scharfenberger and his party that has been in control of what has been happening here for years. They are the ones who have been raising taxes."
    Notably, neither Scharfenberger nor Nelsen would respond with comment for this article when contacted through official channels at Town Hall, a process mandated by the Middletown Township Committee where it regards The Courier newspaper.