Dennis Levinson

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson will not run for U.S. Senate and will instead back Goya Foods heir Andy Unanue for the seat. 

“He’s a dynamic young man, wants to get involved,” said Levinson, who received a courtesy phone call from Unanue today.  “He comes forward without the political baggage that so many of our candidates have.  It’s exactly the way things should be.”

State Sen. Joe Pennacchio never had the enthusiastic support of most party leaders for his U.S. Senate candidacy. But just as it seemed like they had no option other than to coalesce around him instead of rival candidate Murray Sabrin, the latest turn in the campaign has caused several leaders to make one last push for a Senate candidate.

The reemergence of Pennacchio’s controversial 1991 booklet yesterday as a campaign issue has worried the party leaders who were already reluctant to get on board with Pennacchio, and they have renewed their efforts to find an alternate candidate. Although the existence of the book was known to many party leaders, many had not read it until Sabrin released it yesterday. Some fear that incumbent Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg will have a field day with the material, leading to a Lautenberg landslide that could spell trouble for their down-ballot candidates.

“We’re still fishing, we just haven’t gotten a fish,” said one Republican official who wished to remain anonymous. “We’ve got a lot of bait in the water.”

It’s a valid concern, according to Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray.

“This is how Democrats win landslide elections in New Jersey -- by having the ability to paint the Republicans as ideologically out of touch with the state,” said Murray, who noted two statewide races in which Democrats were able to successfully portray their opponents as ideologues: Democrat Jim Florio did against Republican Jim Courter in 1989, as did Democrat Jim McGreevey against Republican Brett Schundler in 2001.

Newsflash out of Atlantic County.

County Executive Dennis Levinson and Sheriff James McGettigan sat at a table in Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in front of a small crowd and refrained from feasting utterly on each other.

You know the most vicious teeth gnashing has been had when these two bruisers are able to exchange civil barbs in a public forum sponsored by the Atlantic City Mainland Chamber of Commerce, which is what happened Thursday night.

On the county level this election cycle, Democrats are on the offensive.

The biggest battlegrounds this year are Monmouth and Atlantic Counties, where beneath competitive legislative races in the 12th and second districts, control of county government is up for grabs. The former is also seeing a competitive race for Sheriff, and the latter for County Executive.

In both counties, Republicans are left defending their territory, while Democrats are also looking to bolster their minorities in Burlington and Somerset Counties, with the potential to put them in play next year.

Monmouth County may be the one place Democrats can benefit from Christopher Christie’s recent corruption busts. Several of the “Operation Bid-Rig” defendants, most of them former Republican public officials, are scheduled to be sentenced this week. State Democrats are taking special notice of the district, hoping to turn the tide by delivering a message that the Republicans’ grip on power has led to widespread corruption of the type seen in Operation Bid rig.

In Atlantic County, the tangled web of friendships and political alliances has reared its ugly head again.

Today’s example is Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, whose good friend Frank Barbera, a real estate broker and former Atlantic County GOP treasurer, was arrested earlier this week for allegedly paying bribes to disgraced former city council president Craig Callaway. Talk about Barbera being under federal investigation had circulated for months, and his suicide attempt last month only heightened expectations that he would soon be arrested.

Democrats hit Levinson hard this afternoon on behalf of his opponent, Sheriff Jim McGettigan, with County Chairman Ron Ruff calling Barbera his “closest confidant and fundraiser.”

Frank Barbera, the former Atlantic County GOP Treasurer, was arrested on bribery charges
Frank Barbera, the former Treasurer of the Atlantic County Republican Party and a political ally of County Executive Dennis Levinson, was arrested by FBI agents this week on bribery charges, a month after a suicide attempt. He was found in his car with what police described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his chest.

Barbera is accused of offering a $5,000 bribe to Craig Callaway in 2005, while Callaway was serving as the Atlantic City Council President. Callaway is now serving a 40-month sentence following his own bribery conviction.

Atlantic Sheriff Jim McGettigan isn’t particularly selective about the guests he invites to the fundraisers for his county executive candidacy.

Invited to a $1,000 per head McGettigan fundraiser last month was Eric Bernstein, the labor and first amendment attorney who McGettigan denounced as a “porn lawyer” in July. McGettigan had criticized his opponent Dennis Levinson for hiring Bernstein, even though Bernstein specifically worked as McGettigan’s labor counsel (McGettigan said he did not know that Bernstein did work on behalf of the porn industry).

It’s said that a reporter should never become part of the story.

But Virginia McCabe, a self-published journalist who runs a website called the Atlantic Daily Sentinel, has found herself in that awkward position. Currently, she’s being criticized by Democrats as a tool of the Dennis Levinson County Executive Campaign.

On Saturday, McCabe broke a story about the use of the term “wetbacks” by Sheriff and Atlantic County Executive candidate Jim McGettigan at a candidates’ forum. Her lede read: “Atlantic County Sheriff Jim McGettigan said he wanted to get rid of ‘wetbacks,’ Saturday referring to Mexicans who have crossed over the boarder illegally.”

In the ever-nasty Atlantic County Executive Race, both candidates think their opponent needs to issue an apology.

In a press release today, Democratic Sheriff and County Executive candidate Jim McGettigan joined Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Ron Ruff in calling on Republican incumbent Dennis Levinson to apologize for “injecting racism” into the County Executive campaign.