Assemblymen Trade Barbs by Email

The two assemblymen who represent Gloucester Township have not seen eye to eye on very much lately.

Even less so than usual.

What had been sporadic verbal sparring by way of email press releases over recent weeks and months turned into a tit-for-tat argument between Assemblymen Domenick DiCicco (R-4) and Paul Moriarty (D-4) on Wednesday.

It began with a 10:40 a.m. email from Moriarty's camp calling for Gov. Chris Christie to reimburse taxpayers for town-hall meetings in which Christie "openly campaigns for Republicans to win elections."

Christie has held a series of town-hall meetings, including one in last month.

"These are taxpayer-funded events organized and promoted by the taxpayer-funded governor’s office. If the governor sticks to public policy, that’s fine, but if the governor wants to campaign, he must dip into his own wallet," Moriarty said in the press release. "He should not be wasting taxpayer dollars on his own political rallies.”

DiCicco's camp countered with an email about three-and-half hours later, calling for Moriarty to reimburse taxpayers for "the $1.34 billion in tax increases he has supported in his time in Trenton."

“Our constituents face serious problems every day, but my district colleague is preoccupied with spying on the governor and raising taxes,” DiCicco said. “If he truly wants to stop wasting public dollars, he should stop fighting the governor and work with us to reform property taxes, public employee benefits or the Delaware River Port Authority which uses our constituents’ toll dollars to fund a patronage pit for politicians in Camden and Gloucester counties.”

Moriarty ended the exchange with a press release issued shortly after 3:30 p.m. in which he accused DiCicco of "doing very little to protect taxpayer dollars since taking office."

Looks like the 4th Legislative District Assembly race has heated up early.