Richard Dennison

Remember all those ethics complaints during the campaigns?  Wonder what happens to them?

We’ll see tomorrow, when the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards meets to rule on the five complaints that have been filed since the committee last met.  But if history is any guide, they’ll mostly be dismissed. 

While legislators who sit on the committee say that complaints occasionally have at least some level of validity, some say they’re filed more to get a headline in the heat of a campaign rather than pointing out a real, troubling ethical infraction.  They also say they’ve noticed it happening more often in recently, with candidates taking advantage of a committee – one with a reputation for being toothless and ineffective -- for their political ends.   

Indeed, 2007 was the year of the ethics complaint, with 10 filed so far- the most of any year on record, going back to 1972.  Five have been settled, all of which were dismissed.

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Democratic State Senate candidate Richard Dennison says that the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office overreacted when they sent detectives to question an 18-year-old campaign volunteer, Andrew Keegan, as part of an investigation of GOP State Sen. Diane Allen's stolen lawn signs. Dennison, an attorney and undertaker, also criticized the prosecutor, Robert Bernardi, for a press release he issued on the investigation yesterday.

"Is it typical practice for your office, which surely must be terribly busy with very serious crimes such as rape and murder, to send two detectives to the school of a high school student and have them barge into the main office of that school and ask administrators to speak with that student—in the middle of the school day—when that student is accused of approximately five dollars of property damage?" Dennison wrote. "If that is normal practice for your office, I would consider that to be doing a greater disservice to the Office of the Prosecutor and to the public than any hastily written email from a candidate for public office ever could."

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Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi said today that Richard Dennison was misleading the public about his office’s actions. 

“While my office does not generally comment on ongoing investigations, in this case I feel compelled to publicly respond to certain statements that Mr. Dennison falsely attributes to my office,” Bernardi

wrote in a statement. .

In an email posted on PoliticsNJ.com, Dennison complained that, as retribution for his own complaint about State Sen. Diane Allen’s staff allegedly stealing his campaign signs, her campaign filed a complaint against one of his teenaged volunteers.  Dennison said that, after questioning the volunteer, who he said was 17, the prosecutor’s office “

admitted that the charge was absolutely baseless and surmised, as I have, that it more than likely came as retribution for my threat to file suit against those responsible for stealing my signs.” more >

State Sen. Diane Allen fired off an angry letter to the Burlington County Republican municipal chairs on Sunday, criticizing former GOP Chairman Glen Paulsen for meddling with her campaign in what appears to be a rift in the county organization.

In the letter, which Allen did not publicize, she wrote that Paulsen had, unbeknownst to her and her running mates, gone behind her back to her treasurer and essentially taken control of her campaign funds.

“This was done without the consent or knowledge of myself, Nancy (Griffin), Brian (Propp), or the former County Chairman,” wrote Allen.

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If it wasn’t for the gift of anonymity, it wouldn’t be wise for someone with an easily bruised ego to venture down to the comments section at the bottom of each of this Web site’s stories, where partisan punches tend to fly.

But in between blowing off steam, some frequent commenters have found that, on occasion, they actually have had some informative discussions, and that what they write here can sometimes impact campaigns and news cycle – whether it’s insider gossip or criticism of a reporter’s story.

Some have even developed personas and have gathered their own followings. Take DinoPCrocetti, the anonymous conservative commenter, whose alias is an homage to his idol, Dean Martin. He started his own blog, Dino’s Forum, after this site’s own pseudononymous administrator blocked his posts last summer. Under PoliticsNJ.com's new ownership he’s back.

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With about five weeks to go before the general election, it’s risky to write off any political campaign as a lost cause. But several underdog candidates who once seemed to have a slight chance at running competitive races do not seem to have picked up steam or support from their parties.

State Senate candidates Robert Colletti, Richard Dennison, Gina Genovese and John Villapiano have all run spirited campaigns. And while none has a good shot at winning on November 6th, all four insist that their campaigns are very much alive.

Meanwhile, Seema Singh’s State Senate campaign isn’t necessarily dead, though it is on life support.

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In district seven, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost two to one, Democratic state Senate candidate Rich Dennison keeps coming back to a a single theme when attacking incumbent Diane Allen: she’s a Republican.

Dennison even kicked off his campaign by trying to get Allen to sign a pledge declaring her independence from Bush, and last week made a tempting offer to reporters at a press conference, saying he’d give a million dollars to anyone who could find the word “Republican” on an Allen campaign flyer that he help up.

Dennison’s strategy is vaguely reminiscent of a recent U.S. Senate race in another densely populated blue state: Rhode Island, where in 2006 Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse beat independent-minded incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chaffee in an election widely viewed as a referendum on President Bush and the Republican Party. Despite breaking from his party on many issues, the reason most often cited for Chafee’s loss was the “R” next to his name.

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Democrat Richard Dennison launched his campaign to unseat State Sen. Diane Allen today by linking her to George W. Bush, but he was unable to identify a single time he would have voted differently than her in Trenton.

The 29-year-old lawyer/undertaker, who interned in the Clinton White House, called on Allen to "declare independence from George W. Bush and his politics of special interest, so that we may best serve our true constituents, the people of the 7th district."

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