Bodine compares Burlington County Republicans to John Kerry

In what might be a first of this campaign season, a Democratic candidate has used John Kerry to disparage his opponents.

Eighth district Democratic state Senate candidate Fran Bodine, a former Republican, responded to a television commercial aired by Burlington County Republicans that said he voted in favor of budgets that increased the state debt by $8 billion.

Although Bodine did not dispute the votes, he pointed out that the commercial referred to budgets from between 1994 and 2002 – when Bodine was a Republican, and under the administrations of Governors Christie Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco.

"Burlington County's Republicans have committed a flip-flop that would make even John Kerry proud," said Bodine. "It shows just how desperate the party has become when it attempts to white-wash its own past. This latest attempt at revisionist history is so transparent as to be merely laughable."

But Burlington County GOP Executive Director Chris Russell said that the commercial merely demonstrated their candidate’s commitment to bipartisan reform in Trenton.

“Phil Haines is determined to go to the State Senate to Change Trenton, and if that means calling out both parties on their lack of spending discipline in the past, that’s exactly what he’s going to do,” said Russell. “The fact that career politician Fran Bodine is so utterly oblivious as to defend Trenton’s spending habits over the last decade is all the proof you need that he is woefully out-of-touch and its time for him to go.”