A group of Union County Democrats say that Colleen Mahr used their images in a campaign video without permission.
Freeholders Christopher Hudak and Alexander Mirabella and the former Mayor of Scotch Plains, Kevin Glover, want Mahr to take them out of a video urging county committee members to support her for Democratic Chairman.
“Mahr did not get our authorization to use our images in her video. Her actions placing our images in her video creates the misperception that we are endorsing her candidacy for UCDC Chair. We are not. We are supporting Nick Scutari for Chair, and we call upon her and her campaign to immediately remove our images,” the three said.
Yesterday, Kimberly Nix, a county committeewoman from Scotch Plains, complained that Mahr used her image in a piece of literature without her permission.
Our Union County Democratic Chair has to be someone who has earned people’s trust. But if this is any indication of what kind of chair she will be, she has not earned mine,” Nix said. “Given Ms. Mahr’s misleading campaign and blatant disregard to the Democratic Committee’s bylaws, we think everyone should reconsider their support. These are not our Democratic values.”
Kevin Glover was kicked out by Scotch Plains voters after it was revealed he was illegally taking health benefits for his part-time position as mayor, and after it came out he gave a secret pay raise to Al Mirabella, the country freeholder whom he’d hired as town manager for one hundred and fifty K. Glover’s endorsement of Scutari is enough to make any sane person wonder what kind of crowd the latter surrounds himself with.
I read with interest in the WL feb 1 edition regarding the county democrat party political infighting for their “county chair” selection. On page 5 were 2 letters juxtaposed, each one listing supporters of either Senator Scutari or Fanwood Mayor Mahr, who are the two main people vying for the “boss” position.
Although I am a democrat I am not a committee person who would be voting at the convention. But for those who know me, I have a grasp of what our county govt and local political system is about.
Looking at the who’s who supporting each candidate one would see that Scutari has pretty much a rogue’s gallery of self-serving, tax abusing, patronage, nepotistic supporters. Not to say some slipped into the Mahr camp, and both lists do have good honest democrat supporters also. I am not naming names, but I recognize these people from paying attention to the county politic the last 20 years. The stories I could tell.
And sadly at the same time if you read the Leader regularly, Senator Scutari is forcing on us, with the nodding approval of the freeholders, his chief of staff, Ed Oatman to be union county manager, a very complex management position overseeing 2500 employees and a half billion dollar budget. The position is also supposed to not be political. Note the chief of staff type position is pretty much just a concierge position, pushing paper and directing callers to the proper department. In other words, Oatman has no experience for the county manager position. In addition, Oatman is not even from this county and my guess he probably can’t even name the 21 towns in the county. What is most grievous is that it was found that the freeholders bypassed their own county policies that dictate they have to have a manager from inside the county and also they have to have an interview committee to review candidates first. This the freeholders ignored is a malfeasant act which they will probably correct surreptitiously. Note most of the freeholders are backing Scutari.
We are watching political infighting and this normally does not impact us great unwashed, but with Scutari forcing his inexperienced political subordinate onto us in a $160,000 patronage position, this will corrupt the county system into some self-serving system for Scutari and his political donor benefactors at the expense of the taxpayers. This Scutari dirty laundry is being aired out thanks to the Westfield leader. Can we do something about it? As democrats we can push our local committee people to side with the Mahr camp for nomination. Maybe she would push for someone with adequate experience for the county manager position. And help keep our local governments clean as possible.