Thursday, October 16, 2008

Shulman's Sarlo Stumble

PolitickerNJ and the Star Ledger are reporting that State Senator Paul Sarlo is calling for the status of Representative Scott Garrett to be investigated. From the Star Ledger:
"The New Jersey Division of Taxation needs to open an investigation to determine whether Scott Garrett is engaged in a tax evasion scheme to duck his fair share of New Jersey state taxes," Sarlo said in the Shulman campaign statement.
Of all the people the Shulman campaign could have gotten to say this, Sarlo is near the bottom of the list for least corrupt NJ politicians.

First, Sarlo was the patron saint of EnCap, the largest waste of Bergen County and NJ taxpayer dollars in decades. We're talking millions if not billions of dollars wasted; in addition to the use of eminent domain within his own District threatening to take away generations of family businesses.

Second, with the exception of the Lautenberg/Andrews tiff, Sarlo is one of indicted former BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero's favorite State Senators. He was so close to Ferriero, that his quest for Majority Leader in the State Senate back in November was blocked by reform minded State Senator Loretta Weinberg.

Third, he represents absolutely no one from our District. There are plenty of elected Democrats within the District who could have called for the corruption investigation, maybe even a respected leader like Weinberg. But Sarlo!?!

In what has been a campaign strong enough to make the DCCC's list of top campaigns, this may have been the Shulman camp's biggest stumble. Shulman's had more momentum and money than anyone taking on Garrett, and an unparalleled friendly climate. But introducing Sarlo as a surrogate right before the debates opens up a whole can of worms.

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