Dear Assemblyman Joe Azzolina: How can we miss you when you won’t go away? That’s the question on the lips of thousands of voters after Joe decided last week that it wasn’t enough to drag Middletown Republicans and the Monmouth County GOP into his personal political hog-wallow — he’d drag the Old Bridge portion of Middlesex County that’s in his district into the mud as well.
Can’t the man take a hint? Apparently not, although the message was very clear.
For those of you unfamiliar with the salient points of Azzo-lina’s recent political history, let me recap.
For years, the Azzo-lina family has been trying to get permission to build a $150 million, 137.5-acre “town center” development in Middletown that would front Route 35 and extend from Kanes Lane to Kings Highway East.
The proposal has not been universally welcomed by local residents or politicians, but the opponents who really became burrs under Azzolina’s saddle blanket were then-mayor Rosemarie Peters, then-Monmouth County Republican Chairman William Dowd and township Republican Chairman Peter Carton.
In one of the dirtiest campaign seasons ever, in 2003 Azzolina turned on his fellow hometown Republicans. Using the pet newspaper he owns, the Courier, the foaming-at-the-mouth diatribes of its publisher, Jim Purcell, and any other platform he could find, Joe made it his mission to sink Peters’ campaign and to destroy the continued viability of Dowd and Carton.
It was a bitter and divisive crusade — and it made Azzolina a lot of enemies.
Peters won her re-election handily, but hometown voters were so mad at Azzo-lina’s embarrassing antics that they stomped him at the polls. Azzolina was road-kill in Middletown, coming in dead last among all candidates on the Assembly ballot. And he would have lost his seat entirely if Old Bridge Republicans (who may not have known just how much he deserved to lose) hadn’t pushed him over the top to a 280-vote victory over Democrat Leonard Inzerillo, a win that survived a recount.
Even so, there were lots of Monmouth County Republicans looking to give Joe a little payback. Shortly after the recount, Dowd said Azzolina’s attacks on fellow Republicans were over the line and would cost him the party’s support in the future.
“His greedy instincts made it convenient for him to assail the integrity of an honest local politician and party leaders. … And he is not going to get away with it by suddenly calling it a misunderstanding,” Dowd said. “He has lost our support.”
And even though Dowd lost his position to Fredrick P. Niemann in a shake-up last year, the Monmouth County party must still believe Azzolina doesn’t have the juice to win another term.
On April 9, Monmouth County Repub-licans showed Joe the hook by endorsing Freeholder Amy Handlin of Middletown to run with Samuel Thompson of Old Bridge for the 13th District legislative seat, instead of endorsing Azzolina and Thomp-son. The Middlesex County Republicans, Joe’s old pals in Old Bridge, endorsed Azzolina and Thompson.
Although he had promised to take the gold watch if his county party failed to endorse him, retire with a little dignity, Azzolina dug in his heels and filed his own petition to run in the June 7 primary, thereby guaranteeing a destructive fight unless he does the right thing and bows out.
Last week, Niemann, state Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. and Middlesex County Committee Chairman Joseph Leo met with Joe and undoubtedly suggested Azzolina think of the party and remove himself from the race. The Middlesex County Republican leadership had been knocked upside the head when it became apparent that Handlin and Thompson had decided to run on the same ticket, in spite of the county party’s endorsement. Leaving Joe twisting slowly in the political wind.
A smart politician would head quietly into the sunset, plan a nice retirement banquet. But selfish man that he is, as of this writing, Azzolina was still in, and staying.
Joe Azzolina doesn’t give a hoot about the voters of his district, or his party. He doesn’t care if he rips them all apart, doesn’t care that he’s not wanted. It looks like he’ll do anything to get his way and get his town center built.
If anyone in the 13th District didn’t know what the real Joe Azzolina looked like before last week, they’re certainly getting a good look now — and it’s very ugly.
••••••••
You just can’t make this stuff up.
Confirming one of the worst-kept secrets in Monmouth County, rumors of former Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco’s corruption were proved true when he pleaded guilty to accepting $245,000 in bribes from a developer to grease the way for numerous building projects.
Currently free on bail, the former mayor faces a maximum of 15 years in jail and $350,000 in fines when he’s sentenced in July.
Meanwhile, he’s fighting to collect accumulated vacation and sick time from his $107,000-a-year job on the state Victims of Crime Compensation Board — a position he was appointed to in 1996 by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and reappointed to by Gov. James McGreevey.
Scannapieco — mayor from 1992 through 2003 — is no stranger to using political influence to do a favor. Even though acting Gov. Richard Codey said he planned to fire him from the board last Friday, maybe Scannapieco can use any remaining influence with the other four members to compensate the victims of his own crimes — the 36,398 people who live in Marlboro, as of the 2000 U.S. Census. The victims he sold out for about $6.75 apiece.
Those victims suffer every time they get in the car to negotiate the area’s congested traffic, or look over a sea of rooftops that used to be open space. And they’ll continue to suffer long after Scannapieco has paid his fines, served his time in prison and gone to the Great Beyond.
What’s that worth, do you think? Probably more than Scannapieco, the Victims of Crime Compensation Board, or the state itself, could ever hope to pay.
Gregory Bean is executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers.