James McGettigan

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.

Senate President Dick Codey is taking an active role in some south Jersey campaigns previously considered to the territory of South Jersey boss George Norcross.

Codey is reportedly donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to the ultra-competitive legislative races in districts one and two.

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.

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 Atlantic County, Democrats are trying to pry the only Republican county executive seat in the state out of GOP hands.

That seat belongs to Dennis Levinson, a former history teacher in Atlantic City who’s facing Democrat Sheriff Jim McGettigan in a race that might be the best show of the summer if you’re into political mudslinging. With over three months to go before the next election, the race has already seen its fair share of volatile exchanges, including Dick Cheneyesque moment and a Nazi comparison.

South Jersey Democrats see taking Levinson’s seat as a natural progression. They’ve been encouraged by a number of party defections and by coming within a few hundred votes of winning a majority on the freeholder board. Levinson, who’s served since 2000, went unchallenged in the last election.

“In a way there’s been a change in the last four years in Atlantic County,” said Ron Ruff, the county’s Democratic Chairman. “We’ve become more energized.”

But Republicans insist that their woes in the last election were mainly due to an anti-Bush backlash, and imply that McGettigan is a tool of the South Jersey Democratic machine.

Atlantic County Sheriff and Democratic County Executive candidate James McGettigan took a more subtle approach in his race against Republican incumbent Dennis Levinson today, criticizing him without once mentioning his name.

In a press release, McGettigan pledged his support for pay-to-play reforms under consideration by the Atlantic County Freeholders – reforms that were introduced to the board by Levinson in January. McGettigan had a few to add, however.

The “porn lawyer” that James McGettigan criticized Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson for hiring is actually McGettigan’s labor counsel.

Yesterday, Atlantic County Sheriff James McGettigan, who is Levinson’s Democratic challenger this fall, said he was “outraged” that the county hired a lawyer who advises the adult entertainment industry. But the lawyer, Eric Bernstein, said he was hired by the county to work primarily on McGettigan’s behalf.

"I cannot understand the Sheriffs issues with me as I have, and still serve him as his labor counsel. I personally advised him of my involvement in the adult entertainment industry years ago", said Bernstein.

McGettigan’s press release, which stated that “the public has a right to know why and how the Levinson Administration hired this porn lawyer, and whether he’s representing us on our dime, not pornographers” was just the latest salvo in what has become an especially nasty race.