Paulsen protege Layton mans GOP reins in Burlington

In an act that became inevitable when a state superior court judge abruptly reversed his decision from earlier in the week, the Burlington County Republican Committee elected Bill Layton as their new party chairman at a special meeting on Saturday.

The unanimous vote proclaimed party unity, but the mood in the room bore an undercurrent of anxiety, which the new chairman attempted to dissipate in his acceptance speech.

"Friends," Layton told the crowd of 300 in the Wyndham Hotel in Mount Laurel, "families fight. They fight all the time. But they leave their house unified, and they go and fight with the neighbors."

Moments earlier, he had hugged his nemesis, outgoing chair Dawn Lacy, in a symbolic public display of partisan affection. The crowd clapped, and then broke into emotive overdrive with Sen.-elect Phil Haines leading the effort on his feet as the new chairman stood on-stage alone and gripping the podium said, "I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Layton presented himself as the ideological offspring and dutifully battle-ready protege of Glenn Paulsen, that powerful former chairman of 15 years who had called the emergency meeting of delegates in order to peel Lacy’s fingers off of the acting chairmanship she wielded for the last five months.

By Paulsen’s estimation, Lacy had turned her job into a rebel fortification against him and his chief allies, including campaign manager Chris Russell and Layton, who had served as campaign chairman. When Lacy dismissed Russell and Layton after the election and seized the organization’s financial records, it was power check time for the aging boss, who moved swiftly to have her removed. In a letter issued earlier this month to party delegates on organization stationary, Paulsen informed them of an emergency meeting to elect a new chair, namely Layton.

"I don’t know who he is, but he’s shaking a lot of hands, so I’m assuming he’s the guy," county committee member Joe Wasik said of Layton.

Concerned about lack of transparency, muscleman tactics that she said left committee members feeling bullied, and Paulsen’s persistent use of official letterhead to issue directives, Lacy in a last stand measure sued the boss. Judge John Sweeney initially ruled in her favor, arguing that Lacy had the right to serve out her term as acting chair until June.

Lacy tried to use the judge’s initial ruling as leverage to halt Saturday’s meeting and maintain control.

"You recently received what pretended to be an official notice of a Burlington County Committee election... at the Wyndham Hotel in Mount Laurel," Lacy wrote in a Nov. 27th letter to county committee members. "It was sent to you in complete contravention and violation of our organization’s constitution and bylaws. As confirmed by Burlington County Superior Court Assignment Judge John Sweeney... there is no authority for this meeting, and any election conducted will be invalid and meaningless."

But after an appeal by Paulsen on Friday, the judge reversed his decision and proclaimed his neutrality in an intra-party fight.

The meeting went forward.

At that point Lacy knew it was over. Many of the committee members have public jobs; a vote against Layton would be a vote against Paulsen and why deal with the aggravation of retribution, so runs rank and file logic. Lacy decided it would be foolish to challenge Layton, so received his assurance that he would hire an independent firm to review the organization’s finances, including the questionable tax status of party headquarters, a building owned in part by Paulsen and treasurer Charles Lambiase. Layton also said he would appoint a committee to oversee and possibly improve the organization’s bylaws.

Lacy would reassume her job as vice chair.

In the speech she made before yielding, she clarified her rationale for opposing Paulsen and his cadre of campaign operators. "I do not want to be the chair," Lacy said. "It has never been my goal. Those of you who know me know this to be true. Others may be surprised by this for quite frankly there have been those who have tried to portray me as a power-hungry madwoman."

The retired Air Force officer said she wasn’t especially desirous of any single goal or job within the party, and no, she wasn’t a Norcross mole. She insisted she wanted to serve the GOP, and felt obligated to try to put the organization in what she called an "unquestionable" moral position by imposing financial transparency and discipline. She thanked those who stood with her, including Freeholder Director Jim Wujick, Freeholder Bill Haines and Sheriff Jean Stanfield, all of whom signed a letter supporting an open process. Lacy also praised Sen. Diane Allen, a longtime opponent of Paulsen’s, who, in Lacy’s words, "has shown herself to be nobody’s puppet."

Then came hard words for Sen.-elect Phil Haines.

"Phil, you sat across the dining room table from me and told me, ‘This is our chance to make things better, I will be right there for you, we can’t let Layton and Paulsen take over,’" recounted Lacy, looking down from the podium at Haines, who sat in the front row. "You said to me to be tough because they’ll try to tear us apart and pit us against one another. You stood by my side. You signed the letter, and helped draft it."

But a day later Haines changed his mind and issued a second letter distancing himself from the Lacy alliance.

"Unfortunately," Lacy told Haines, "I don’t have much hope for Republicans winning the Statehouse anytime soon with such a lack of fortitude in the senator-elect."

The comment produced a chorus of groans. "That was horrible. That’s horrible. Bad. You’re going to tear everybody apart." Lacy was unapologetic.

Haines later dismissed a rumor that he had backed down from his alliance with Lacy because Paulsen threatened to withdraw the promise of a judgeship.

"That’s not accurate," said Haines. "That was never discussed. This is the first time I’ve heard it. I have not had thoughts of a judicial appointment."

Although he anticipates taking a cut by half of his current county clerk’s salary when he goes to the state senate next year, "I had all along planned to go back into private law practice" to compensate for the loss, Haines said. For his part, Paulsen also denied he had dangled the trinket of judicial power in front of Haines, and speculated that the senator-elect’s initial desire to buck the power structure had mostly to do with the 8th district senate candidate’s disappointment in Layton and Russell’s campaign tactics.

On the trail earlier this fall, Haines said if he alone were in charge he wouldn’t have issued the attack mail piece depicting terrorists in masks and questioning the ability of Democrat Tracy Riley to serve in Trenton because her lawyer husband represents a man charged in a terror plot.

After sustaining the tongue lashing from Lacy, Haines went to the front of the room Saturday and allowed Layton to hoist his arm, gratified when the new chair called him "a standup guy."

Whatever differences from the past campaign, Layton reminded his fellow Republicans that they must leave as a unified party to contend with the Democrats, and that was a point State Chairman Tom Wilson amplified in his own man-the-parapet remarks at the end of the meeting.

"There’s a group of people amassed just south of here who want to take what you have away from you," said Wilson, referring to the Camden County Democratic Organization. "Their greed and self-interest fuels them."

Apparently determined to shake down every statement from the would-be rarified climes of leadership to disperse among the rows of mostly older people whom, she said, for too long have been told how to vote and who to vote for, where to sign and when, Lacy said Wilson himself had told her that those same members of the county committee are satisfied to be sheep, and really don’t want to be involved anyway.

"But I disagree," said the chair who in a few moments would again be in the organization’s secondary role.

"You deserve a true stake in our party and its bright future," Lacy told the crowd. "I will remain in my position as vice chair. So for those of you who have supported my efforts, I will continue to be actively involved in the party and work toward progress and unity as our party moves forward after today. But remember, silence is not the same as unity."