WAKE UP! It's Time to Vote.

The day is finally upon us and this will be my last blog as a candidate. That, at least, should make some of my readers happy.

The lines are drawn and the choices are clear. If you vote party, I’m sorry that this blog might not have much to offer. If you vote Republican…well, I guess I already have your vote; and if you vote Democrat… well, you have chosen to vote the status quo and you have to convince yourself that nothing I’ve written and nothing I write here bothers you. If you vote issues and individuals then I have a plea to make to you at this last moment before the election. Read on.

Again, the lines are drawn and the choices are clear. You can vote the party of MONEY or you can vote the party of the PEOPLE.

Team-Mayer is the party of MONEY. I ask you today, have you seen Mr. Mayer or his team knocking on your doors and walking and talking in your neighborhoods? If you read my last blog about the buying of an election (seen here), you will understand that Team-Mayer has run a campaign of costly TV-ads, highway billboards, photo-ops, negative literature, and free BBQs for political “family and friends” paid for from vendor-solicited donations. Business entities that bid and receive contracts in Gloucester Township have donated large sums of money to Team-Mayer - $2,500, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 and $20,000 donations.

Political Action Committee donations total almost $50,000 of Team-Mayer’s spending. When concerned citizens attempted to enact real pay-to-play reform and end the money transactions that influence our politicians in town the effort was thwarted by political operatives. Councilman Hutchison of Team-Mayer was concerned that Super-PACs would buy the election. Mr. Hutchison then introduced a measure that did nothing to end the practice as can be seen by what we have in this election. The New Jersey citizen’s group responsible for helping over 85 NJ towns enact working pay-to-play reform stated that our measure did nothing. In fact, we have a group of vendors living off township contracts that are bankrolling Team-Mayer’s reelection bid to the tune of over $150,000. In fact, at one point when questioned about the practice of accepting large monetary donations from contractors later awarded work in town the mayor stated that the money was needed to run election campaigns. Hold down the laughter, please.

Are you happy with the moneyed-interests that are influencing the election process in this town? If not, you have a clear choice on Tuesday.

You can vote the party of the PEOPLE on Tuesday: Gloucester Township FIRST – Tanya L. Brown for mayor and Paul DiBartolo, Patricia Kline, and Joseph Pauli for Council.

Gloucester Township FIRST has run its campaign on the streets of Gloucester Township. We have walked for miles distributing our literature outlining our views and talking and listening to the people of Gloucester Township.

I, personally, have had GT residents thank me for walking their neighborhoods. Many have testified that they have never seen candidates in their neighborhoods before. Burned into my mind is the statement made by an elderly resident who said, “Where have you been for twenty years?” Her testimony was that she had never had a candidate come to her door in all the time she had lived in GT. Some have said that our presence was what convinced them to vote for us. They are hungry for candidates that truly represent the residents of Gloucester Township not the moneyed interests trying to keep their township contracts secure.

If elected as a councilman in Gloucester Township, I can tell the vendors who have contracts in town that they have nothing to fear from me. If they are competitive in their bids then they will be given equal consideration for township work. They cannot however buy my vote and that will become very clear.

Consider why an engineering firm that has been awarded contracts in Gloucester Township for over twenty years, and has numerous contracts in other towns, would feel the need to donate over $20,000 to Team-Mayer’s campaign for reelection. That smacks of downright influence peddling and such practices have to end in Gloucester Township.

You can vote the party of MONEY; big money that has purchased TV-ads, highway billboards, photo-ops, smear literature, and free BBQs…But whose interests are you voting? Yours or the contractors buying influence to be used to gain contract awards in Gloucester Township?

Or…You can vote the party of the PEOPLE. You can vote for the candidates that have knocked on your doors and brought the message of government reform in GT to the neighborhoods of GT. It’s time to separate the connections between big money and the influence that it buys with the current mayoral/council team. You have a chance to vote for change in Gloucester Township and put people over money.

I, Paul DiBartolo, am a candidate for Gloucester Township council and I encourage you to vote intelligently on November 5th, 2013.

VOTE Gloucester Township FIRST – Brown, DiBartolo, Kline and Pauli.