Given the heated political climate in Millstone Township, residents would certainly benefit from at a debate or candidates’ forum at which the two Township Commit-tee candidates could explain where they stand on issues important to the township.
Some of the statements made by independent candidate John Pfefferkorn in his recent campaign literature have drawn angry responses from supporters of Republican candidate Greg Bellotti. Bellotti himself claims that his opponent is distorting his views. Pfefferkorn has also questioned some of Bellotti’s claims.
Pfefferkorn has made clear his willingness to debate.
Bellotti should do likewise.
With more than two weeks left before Election Day, there is plenty of time to schedule a forum or debate.
In a related matter, Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter, in an angry e-mail sent to this newspaper last week, questioned the fairness and accurateness of our reporting. One inaccuracy which he brought to our attention was a mistake and is corrected on this page. A second inaccuracy had to do with a candidate profile of John Pfefferkorn, in which the writer stated that he is endorsed by the regular Republicans.
Since this is a local paper and the story carried a Millstone dateline, we would assume that readers would take this to mean that the local Republican municipal organization endorsed Pfefferkorn.
Mr. Wingerter had a completely different interpretation: "The statement, ‘The candidate, who is endorsed by the regular Republicans …,’ is absolutely false and cannot be further from the truth," he wrote, going on to explain that Bellotti is listed on the official ballot under Regular Republican and has the support of the entire state and county Republican ticket from Bret Schundler on down.
He further states that the Republican municipal committee consists of but seven members.
The fact of the matter is that, although he is running as an independent, Mr. Pfefferkorn, and not Mr. Bellotti, is endorsed by the Millstone Republican organization. Bellotti is the Republican Party candidate, having run unopposed in the GOP primary after Township Committeeman William Kastning withdrew at the last minute.
Bellotti, on the other hand, has the endorsement of the Millstone Coalition, a political fund-raising organization that appears to be trying to usurp the power of both the Republican and Democratic municipal organizations.
The coalition makes much of its contributions to various organizations, but fails to mention its fund-raising over the past two elections for candidates it has backed. As recently as June 18, it donated $3,000 in in-kind contributions to the Greg Bellotti for Township Committee campaign, according to New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission reports.
That’s all well and good, if that’s what residents of Millstone want.
What’s difficult to understand, however, is why the mayor, who, like Wingerter, accused us of inaccurate reporting in connection with an article last June, so adamantly denies membership in the coalition. The article stated that he was a coalition member.
We subsequently corrected the inaccuracy but remain baffled at the connections among the coalition, the elected officials whom the coalition has supported through endorsements as well as monetarily through campaign donations, and the local political parties.
A debate between the Republican/coalition candidate — who also enjoys the backing of the Democratic candidate who withdrew at the last minute — and the independent candidate would surely help everyone understand the strange politics of Millstone.