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Majority Of Belmar’s Businesses Won’t Support Dems

It was quite encouraging to learn Friday that what is likely the last campaign mailing to come from the other side is probably the easiest to pick apart.  Out of Belmar’s 140 some-odd businesses, the Democrats could only find 23 willing to publicly endorse Magovern and “Balckburn”.

Scan 2

Hmmm.  Not sure where to begin.

Well to start, I thought “moving Belmar forward” was our line.  Its on the back of our flyers.  Its also on a hundred and something of those red lawn signs we see all over town.  And I don’t know how much Tom Volker, of the Inn at the Shore, can “love operating his business here in Belmar”.  He’s been trying to sell it for months.

But at least Volker lives here….well, until he’s able to sell the place anyway.  Many of the signers do not even live in Belmar.  If they think this administration is so great why do they choose to live somewhere else?  If they are not willing to live here themselves, maybe they shouldn’t be trying so hard to influence our elections.

Actually, I see quite a few names on the list who probably should not be trying to influence our elections.  A few of them are vendors to the town who I recognize from reading the payment of bills lists.  At least one of them gets thousands of dollars in business from the borough on a regular monthly basis.  Another one, Busy B’s Launderette is owned by borough employee Ted Bianchi and it has also received business from the town.  Then there’s 9th Ave Pier, which is Chef’s International.  They are the lucky recipients of (so far) 2 lucrative no-bid development contracts that include liquor permits.  I have little doubt they are angling for another on the boardwalk if the mayor’s redevelopment project is able to go forward.  I also wonder if any of the other restauranteurs on the list wants the no-bid inside line to be the caterer for the planned 2nd story banquet hall.

You know Belmar has campaign laws that disqualify vendors if they make campaign contributions and disqualifies officials from voting on liquor licenses if they take a contribution from someone with a liquor license.  (There are several license holders on the list.)  Some of you may recall that the Democrats got tripped up on that law in the aftermath of the 2010 election.  I guess having the disclaimer at the bottom of the letter gets them around the letter of the law, but it certainly violates the spirit of the law.  The law is intended to prevent those businesses who stand to gain financially from the outcome of an election from influencing that election.  That’s exactly what this letter is intended to do.  Its just using a different coin, in this case, their reputations.

Not that those campaign laws are worth anything anyway.  The administration is the one who’s supposed to enforce them and they’re certainly not going to charge themselves with any violations.  For example, some of the liars flyers that came in the mail were paid for by the “Belmar Democratic Committee”.  Where are the names of contributors to that committee that are required to be on the disclosure forms on the borough website?  Don’t bother to look.  They are not there.  But we had to turn down several offers of Republican committee money because the names of contributors are not available.  If you were wondering why the Democrats sent out a lot more mail than we did, and ran a lot more ads in the Coast Star than we did, that’s one big reason right there.

BTW, the interests of a town’s businesses do not necessarily always coincide with the interests of the residents.  (Just ask D’Jais’ neighbors.)  And to be honest, I’m sure there’s more than 23 businesses in town that would like to see the status-quo continued.  Maybe not a lot more, but I’m sure there’s at least a few more.  But they were smart enough not to alienate  hundreds of their customers.  I have spoken with several people who used to be regular customers of some of these establishments but have vowed not to patronize them any more in the future.  As for me, I don’t really go to bars, and very rarely eat out anyway, but when we do go out, yeah, it won’t be to any of these places.  Actually, one of the establishments on the list is where we were originally thinking of spending election night.  Of course now we’ll be celebrating our election victory someplace else.

3 Comments

  1. joegoofinoff wrote:

    If they are not willing to live here themselves, maybe they shouldn’t be trying so hard to influence our elections.
    __________________________________

    Carpetbaggers

    joegoofinoff…

    Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 11:50 am | Permalink
  2. Tom Burke wrote:

    Well stated David. As for me, there are a few on the list that upset me a bit……I too will find a way to not frequent those places. I also just have to wonder if some of these people really knew what they were signing when they were asked. Maybe there will be some backlash in that direction too.
    I do however think that tomorrow, (Monday the day before elections)there will be other smear efforts directed at our campaign. I however have faith that the voters in Belmar are smart enough to see this crap for what it is.

    Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 9:15 pm | Permalink
  3. guest wrote:

    While I am not a business owner, the last thing I would want to do is upset any of my customers and take a stand politically for either party.

    Monday, November 4, 2013 at 7:36 am | Permalink

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