The New Hope councilman says he’s tired of "underhanded politics" and that he will sever his ties with the Republicans to form a new political party.
By: Cynthia Williamson
NEW HOPE Disgusted with what he describes as "underhanded politics," Councilman Robert Gerenser said he’s defecting from his lifelong affiliation with local Republicans and starting a new political party in the borough.
"I have no choice but to change my party affiliation," Mr. Gerenser, 53, wrote in a letter he shot off to newspapers this week. "I will form a separate party to oppose this madness and together we will offer New Hope a sane third choice for decent leadership."
He doesn’t yet have a name for the independent party but is confident it will draw equally disgruntled Republicans and Democrats "fed up with party politics."
"I know many people who might be interested in filing with this third party," he said, declining to provide names.
At the root of his discontentment is the local Republican Committee he asserts is running a "slate of candidates whose sole purpose is to re-ensconce" former Police Chief Robert Brobson.
Mr. Brobson is seeking the Republican nomination in the May primary election for one of three four-year terms available on the Borough Council.
Mr. Gerenser also had planned to run on the Republican ticket, but said he changed his mind after attending a meeting with Mr. Brobson that the Republican Committee held Feb. 26 to screen prospective candidates.
"It is clear to me they are going to endorse a pro-Brobson slate," Mr. Gerenser said Monday. "I am anti-Brobson and, therefore, I won’t put myself in a situation limiting my options."
As the lone Republican incumbent seeking re-election to the Borough Council, Mr. Gerenser said he expected an immediate endorsement from the committee, but was "surprised" to learn no decision would be made until nearly two weeks later, the day after Tuesday’s filing deadline.
"I expected, having been elected in a landslide in 1997, to get the nod," Mr. Gerenser wrote in the letter that blasts Republican Committee members Gail Pedrick and Stephen Stahl. "Instead, I got put off."
Furthermore, Mr. Gerenser wrote, "I cannot run for Council on the same slate" as Mr. Brobson.
"This attempt to re-grab power by (Mr. Brobson) defines his personality to perfection," Mr. Gerenser wrote. "New Hope cannot survive Mr. Brobson on Borough Council."
This is not the first time Mr. Gerenser had distanced himself from Republicans. When he was elected to the council in 1997, he ran as a Democrat in the primary and general elections.
And some say his only motivation in running for the council four years ago was to remove the former chief, which he succeeded in doing the following year when the council voted to fire Mr. Brobson after the release of a controversial police management study.
"We did not set out to fire ex-chief Brobson," Mr. Gerenser wrote. "But when he continued to display an unwillingness to cooperate or to change his ways, as a responsible council we had to act."
Mr. Brobson reached a $112,000 settlement in January with the borough to dissolve lawsuits and grievances the former chief filed after his dismissal. He also received about another $100,000 from the borough’s former insurance carrier.
Mr. Gerenser also had sharp words for Mr. Stahl, calling him a "reprehensible individual" who he asserts has "hijacked" Borough Council meetings in an "attempt to bully" the community into supporting "his friend, the fired ex-chief Brobson."
He also questions Mr. Stahl’s appointment to the two-member committee last year to fill an unexpired term left by the resignation of Jay Snyder, who moved from the borough.
"I don’t know why our wonderful conservative committeewoman would chose someone so liberal he would gag a Democrat," Mr. Gerenser said, making reference to Mr. Stahl. "He has only voted here in New Hope four times, yet he has lived here for over 13 years."
When reached by telephone Monday night, Ms. Pedrick said she had heard about the letter also posted on a New Hope community Web site, but chose not to read it.
"I heard it was offensive and unbelievably false," she said.
Mr. Stahl said the letter is "a joke."
"The man is absolutely entitled to his opinion," Mr. Stahl said. "But the facts are the facts."
If Mr. Gerenser were to have filed as a Republican Tuesday and not received subsequent party endorsement, he predicted he would have lost in the primary.
"They were trying to lure me into filing on March 6 and then say, ‘Sorry Bob, we looked at the line up and we just want it to go this way,’" he said. "And I would have been left out in the cold."
Rather than gamble on an endorsement, Mr. Gerenser said he had "no choice" but to form a third political party that would offer voters a "rational choice to the Brobson follies."
Under Pennsylvania election law, Mr. Gerenser has until a mid-April deadline to establish the new party with the Bucks County Board of Elections. Third-party candidates would appear on the ballot for the first time in the November general election.
"I encourage all like-minded people to get in touch with me by e-mail ([email protected])," he said. "I will host a meeting at a time and place to be announced later."