Hold your nose in Ocean sheriff's race
The Press isn't endorsing in this year's Ocean County sheriff's race because the two candidates couldn't agree on a date to meet with our editorial board, which uses the meetings with candidates to help decide which candidate to back. If they had showed up, it would have been a tough choice to make: Neither has any credibility.
The incumbent, Republican William Polhemus, told us at an editorial board meeting three years ago that if he were re-elected to a three-year term, it would be his last. He lied. At age 77, he's seeking another three-year term. He says he changed his mind because many people encouraged him to run again. Right.
His opponent, Vincent "Ray" Greene, a retired police chief from Harrison, also lied - at least four times in one day. He wrote a letter to the editor endorsing his candidacy that was signed "Ramon Verde" - Spanish for Ray Greene. When we got a little suspicious, particularly since "Verde" had the same phone number and address as Greene, we contacted Greene to confirm the letter. He told us Ramon Verde was an uncle who was living with him. Later in the day, when a Press reporter approached Greene at his home in Barnegat, Greene said "Uncle Ramon" was in Atlantic City.
Apparently recognizing how absurd that explanation was, Greene came up with another one: Verde, he said, was a pseudonym for a friend who was visiting him from Florida. The friend, Greene said, was not at his house at present. And he again refused to fess up that he was lying. That didn't come until later that same night.
"It's just bizarre,'' said Barbara Truncellito, a board member for the Democratic Club of Long Beach Island. "We have a whole letter-writing campaign in Ocean County. We have people to write letters for him."
The episode doesn't speak well for Greene's intelligence or his integrity. If he had even a shred of the latter, he'd pull out of the race now.
The incumbent, Republican William Polhemus, told us at an editorial board meeting three years ago that if he were re-elected to a three-year term, it would be his last. He lied. At age 77, he's seeking another three-year term. He says he changed his mind because many people encouraged him to run again. Right.
His opponent, Vincent "Ray" Greene, a retired police chief from Harrison, also lied - at least four times in one day. He wrote a letter to the editor endorsing his candidacy that was signed "Ramon Verde" - Spanish for Ray Greene. When we got a little suspicious, particularly since "Verde" had the same phone number and address as Greene, we contacted Greene to confirm the letter. He told us Ramon Verde was an uncle who was living with him. Later in the day, when a Press reporter approached Greene at his home in Barnegat, Greene said "Uncle Ramon" was in Atlantic City.
Apparently recognizing how absurd that explanation was, Greene came up with another one: Verde, he said, was a pseudonym for a friend who was visiting him from Florida. The friend, Greene said, was not at his house at present. And he again refused to fess up that he was lying. That didn't come until later that same night.
"It's just bizarre,'' said Barbara Truncellito, a board member for the Democratic Club of Long Beach Island. "We have a whole letter-writing campaign in Ocean County. We have people to write letters for him."
The episode doesn't speak well for Greene's intelligence or his integrity. If he had even a shred of the latter, he'd pull out of the race now.
posted by Randy Bergmann at 1:52 PM
1 Comments:
smith's endorsement smells worse than the sheriff race.smith was tossed off the vet comm. because his abortion stance infuriated too many and made him ineffective. they put him in a corner far from being a congressional block. and he has been ineffective most of the last 10 years for that reason.the late n.c rep. sen made that issue check and be the first american editoialist to retract an endorsement.
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