Martha Bark

The Burlington County Times’ farewell to retiring State Senator Martha Bark wasn’t entirely fond.

Fair enough.

BCT has been consistently thorough in its coverage of Sen. Bark’s pension-padding shenanigans with the Burlington County Bridge Commission and the county vo-tech school system. No special treatment here for the county’s favorite son – er, daughter.

State Senator Martha Bark is expected to resign her seat on Monday so she can qualify for benefits on January 1. If Bark, who did not seek re-election this year, were to wait until her term expires on January 8, she would not begin receiving benefits until February 1.

Bark’s eighth district seat will remain vacant for the final week of her term – a time when several key issues will be posted for votes during the lame duck session of the Senate. New Jersey law permits Special Election Conventions between 7 and 35 days of the vacancy – so Bark’s term will expire before Burlington County Republicans could legally meet to fill her seat.

Republican-turned-Democrat Francis Bodine won just 39% of the vote in his bid for a State Senate seat -- not much better than the 33% that Democrat Thomas Price won against Martha Bark in 2003, without the benefit of campaign funds and staff. Bodine won the same percentage as Gary Haman did against Bark in 2001, and ran six points behind Democratic Senate candidate Marie Hall in 1997.

The most creative press release of the week, so far, comes from the Burlington County Democrats -- with a David Letterman-style Top 10 list:

Martha Bark may not be running for re-election, but the eighth district Democrats don’t want her to go away. At least not as a campaign issue.

In a press release today, Democratic Assemblyman and State Senate candidate Fran Bodine and his Assembly running mates Chris Fifis and Tracy Riley said that their Republican opponents should either condemn Bark or embrace her. To make the point, Burlington County Democratic Chairman Rick Perr used language reminiscent of President Bush.

Francis Bodine may have switched parties, but he hasn't moved out of the legislative office he shares with State Senator Martha Bark and Assemblyman Larry Chatzidakis. Republican legislators in the eighth district have split an office for years and that didn't change when Bodine left the GOP to become the Democratic candidate for State Senate.

Glen Beebe, a Republican who served as Deputy Executive Director of the Assembly when the Republicans were in the majority, has been Bodine's top staffer since 2001 -- his entire $95,000-a-year salary is paid out of Bodine's staff budget -- yet he continues to divide his time between the three legislators. Bark and Chatzidakis are not seeking re-election.

While Burlington County Republicans have not yet made final decision about the eighth district, it appears that County Clerk Philip Haines will run for the State Senate. He would replace Martha Bark, who announced last week that she would not seek re-election.

Republicans are expected to dump Assemblyman Larry Chatzidakis from their ticket and replace him with Scott Rudder, the former Mayor of Medford. Incumbent Francis Bodine, who had also been in danger of being replaced, will get at least one more term.

Five Repubican State Senators have announced their retirements this year -- the largest group of Senators to leave the Senate without running for another office since 1971 -- and there are likely to be more departures on the horizon. Martha Bark will not be seeking re-election, but Burlington County Republicans are waiting to decide who their eighth district candidates will be before Bark makes her formal announcement. Bernard Kenny, the Senate Majority Leader, is also likely to drop his bid for re-election, rather than face Assemblyman/Union City Mayor Brian Stack in the Democratic primary.

Two Democratic Senators from Newark, Ronald Rice and Sharpe James, could retire, instead of facing challenges for renomination. And in Camden County, where Wayne Bryant is expected to seek re-election, circumstances could alter his plans. Insiders say that Republican Senator Peter Inverso has not made a final decision on his 2007 plans.

BURLINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE
7000 Atrium Way, Suite 7
Mt. Laurel, New Jersey 08054
www.burlcodems.com

For Immediate Release
Contact: Chris Fifis (609) 206-1678
January 17, 2007

GROUNDHOG DAY COMES EARLY

Diane Allen Sees Ethics Committee Shadow and Remains Silent for Six More Weeks

(Mt. Laurel, NJ) - Legislative ethics violators breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday when Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance appointed Burlington County State Senator Diane Allen (R-7) to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ethical Standards. The reason for such joy from potential scofflaws is that Diane Allen has remained silent while her own Burlington County Republican Party has been embroiled in ethical scandal, corruption and illegal conduct.

For the past two years, the Burlington County Republican Party has been a standard bearer for corruption in the State of New Jersey. Yet, Diane Allen has not issued a single word of condemnation to the members of her own party. There is little evidence to suggest that she would now do so on the Ethics Committee.

Diane Allen’s abysmal record on ethics in Burlington County:

• State Senator Martha Bark (R-8) is under criminal investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General for two no-show, no-work-product, pension-padding jobs at the Burlington County Bridge Commission and the Burlington County Institute of Technology. Bark earned more than $330,000 for these jobs and doubled her pension. Representatives from these entities admit there is no tangible work-product to show Bark did anything for her salaries.

 Diane Allen has been silent.

• Burlington County Bridge Commission lobbyist, public relations consultant and spokesman Bob Stears pled guilty to bilking $2.7 million from the taxpayers and tollpayers of Burlington County. Stears, through The Strategy Group, whose partners included current State GOP Chair Tom Wilson, fraudulently billed the Bridge Commission approximately $40,000 per month for work that was not done.

 Despite the Bridge Commission being located in her District, Diane Allen has said nothing.

• The Strategy Group and its partners, including State GOP Chair Tom Wilson, benefited from Stears’ fraud by splitting the profits earned from Stears’ unlawful conduct. Assemblymen Jack Conners (D-7) and Michael Panter (D-12) have called on The Strategy Group to disgorge these illegal profits and return them to their rightful owners - the tollpayers and taxpayers of Burlington County.

 Diane Allen has not spoken.

• According to published reports, the state probe of Martha Bark has expanded to the Delaware River Port Authority, then-Burlington County Republican Chairman Glenn Paulsen and Carol Beske of ACT Engineers. Paulsen is Diane Allen’s chief benefactor, supporting her U.S Senate campaign and privately backing her campaign loans with the name and credit of the Burlington County Republican Party. Beske, a close advisor to former GOP candidate Doug Forrester, and her firm have donated more than $150,000 to Burlington County Republicans since 1998.

 Diane Allen has failed to speak out.

• GOP U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester and his company, Benecard, donated thousands of dollars to the Burlington County Republican Party and its candidates. During this time period, Benecard obtained pay-to-play contracts at the Burlington County Special Services School District even though it was not the lowest bidder. The deal also involved the son of Diane Allen’s Republican colleague, State Senator Bill Gormley of Atlantic County.

 Diane Allen has not said a word on the impropriety of this contract.

• Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group was awarded a $488 million state contract by Republicans to design, build, and operate the Division of Motor Vehicles inspection stations and its "high-tech" emissions systems. Parsons had to be removed from the project due to its gross failure. Diane Allen and the Burlington County Republican Party received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Parsons.

 Diane Allen has been mum.

“Leonard Lance and the Republicans may believe that Diane Allen can sit in judgment of those accused of ethical violations, but her track record demonstrates that when faced with her own party’s lapses she has nothing to say," explained Burlington County Democratic Chairman Richard J. Perr.

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Republican Assemblymen Francis Bodine and Larry Chatzidakis view themselves as potential State Senate candidates when embattled incumbent Martha Bark finally announces next year that she will not seek re-election to a fifth term. But GOP sources in Burlington County say that not only are Bodine and Chatzidakis -- neither viewed as legislative giants -- not under serious consideration for the Senate seat, but they could get tossed from the Assembly as well.

The 77-year-old Bark is reportedly the subject of a state Attorney General's investigation into her employment with the Burlington County Bridge Commission and the Burlington County Institute of Technology between 1997 and 2003.

Bodine, who turns 71 next month, has been in the Assembly since 1993 and in public office for thirty years, wants to move up to the Senate. Burlington Republicans historically move people up the ladder -- Mayor to Freeholder, Freeholder to Assembly, Assembly to Senate -- but it's been years since the last opening. By virtue of his seniority, Bodine views the Bark seat as his.

Chatzidakis didn't impress his party earlier this year when he missed all the state budget votes. He was on vacation in Greece and refused to return to Trenton, even though state government was forced to shut down during the budget impasse. At the time, some Republicans from his home county suggested that his $49,000-a-year part-time job should at least ensure his attendance during budget votes.

But Burlington Republicans are running things a little differently these days, especially after losing the race for Surrogate (their first loss in a countywide election since 1989) and the recent admission by lobbyist and ex-GOP operative Robert Stears that he over billed the BCBC for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In response to the threats to their electoral future, Republicans last week picked a political unknown with few ties to party heavyweights to succeed Garfield DeMarco , once the Burlington GOP boss, as BCBC Chairman.

Voter registration in Burlington is almost evenly divided between Republicans (52,078) and Democrats (50,825), with 58% of the voters without party affiliation. Democratic U.S. Senator Robert Menendez won Burlington by 7,063 votes and a Republican statewide candidate hasn't won there since Bob Franks' 3,721 vote win six years ago.

Next year, Republicans will have to defend the seat of five-term Freeholder Vincent Farias, who lost his bid for Surrogate. Many Republicans believe Farias will not run in 2007.

There is some speculation among Republicans that Col. Michael Warner, the County Chairman, could decide to push Bark, Bodine and the 57-year-old Chatzidakis into retirement. Ironically, the problem for Warner is the huge backlog of talent that comes from the same three legislators serving together for a dozen years. By picking three fresh faces to represent the solidly-Republican eighth district, Warner would have to turn down the dozens of others who want to move up. For a party leader, sometimes it is easier to do nothing than to say no.

Warner could opt to pick himself as the GOP Senate candidate. The retired Army Colonel and former state Deputy Commissioner of Military and Veterans was on the short list of legislative candidates before he succeeded Glenn Paulsen as Republican County Chairman in 2004. The conventional wisdom has been that Medford Mayor (and current Deputy Mayor) Scott Rudder is a likely candidate for an open seat, as are Freeholders Dawn Addiego and William Haines, Jr., whose whose father represented the district in the Assembly and Senate from 1981 until his death in 1996.