Hear What All The Fuss Is About: Ethics Complaint Against Freeholder Candidate Smells As Bad As The Sewage It's Based On!

Shortly after the Asubury Park Press came out with it's endorsement of Middldetown Committeeman Sean Byrnes for the position of Monmouth County Freeholder, the dirt and mud that is typical of the Middletown GOP started to fly. Party loyalist Tom Stokes, who owes much of his existence to the Middeltown GOP (he collects a salary, health and pension benefits from the township), came out of the woodwork once again this year to smear his vile mud.

Stokes announced to the world,which you can read about here, that he had filed an ethics complaint against Sean Byrnes over comments he made during Byrnes's first ever Township Committee meeting 22 months ago. The meeting was the annual Township Re-Organizational Meeting held on 1/06/08. Stokes's complaint is flimsily based on comments that Byrnes made in opposition to re-appointing all current members to the Middletown Sewage Authority, which Stokes happens to be a member of.

According to the Township's official minutes of the meeting (p 18), Byrnes comment towards Stokes is non-existent. The minutes simply state that Byrnes said "... it is prudent for those for that are in politics not to receive money from the township."

Stokes is an active member of the Middletown GOP and sits on various boards and commissions in town.

If you think that the meeting minutes are somehow lacking in detail and that Sean Byrnes must have said something more outlandish then this in order for Mr. Stokes to file an ethics complaint then HERE is an audio file of the whole proceeding of the day. You will hear for yourselves at about 58 minutes into the recording, what was exactly said that day, as it does or doesn't pertain to Tom Stokes.

From all that I have learned about Tom Stokes, it seems that he is not such a nice guy. It seems to me that he likes to file frivolous charges against those he or the Middletown GOP dislike.

In this case, Stokes filed an ethics complaint against Sean Byrnes because didn't recuse himself from voting on his re-appointment because as he states, Byrnes has been, "in an adversarial relationship with myself, through litigation, since at least 2001. Yet, even though he had this business and personal, adversarial relationship, he failed to recuse himself when my appointment to the Township of Middletown Sewer Authority was discussed."

From what I understand this litigation is a result from a sexual harassment complaint brought against Stokes when he was a member of the Middletown Board of Education, where he actually called the person who filed the charge against him a "stupid little bitch" although he later said it was "stupid little tramp" at a public meeting.

People in Middletown are tired of these types of dirty attacks and campaigning that the Middeltown GOP engages in just to hold onto power. Now they have tried to use these same tactics on the county level in order to try and gain a last minute advantage for John Curley against Sean Byrnes.

People in Middletown want results, not talk from their elected officials and for to long now all they have gotten out of the Middletown GOP is cheap talk and dirty politics and it all smells as bad as the sewage that that needs to be treated before being disposed of.

Informed voters will decide for themselves whether or not this latest sleazy maneuver by the Middeltown republicans warrant further consideration.

Vote Bynres for Freeholder !!