Third District Republican Congressional candidate Justin Michael Murphy says Ocean County voters “should know that a vote for Jack Kelly or Chris Myers is a vote to validate the corrupt power of County Bosses in both Burlington and Ocean Counties.”

Murphy said Kelly, a county Freeholder, “would be a huge target for the Camden county democrat machine if nominated.  Kelly should resign as a candidate for congress because of the scandalous implications of a patronage job he held between 1999 and 2004 as an ‘analyst’ and ‘business manager’ at the Atlantic City Airport.”

“These are the taxpayer abuses we expect from liberal Democrats, not from officials who claim to respect the basic values of the Republican tradition.  As Republicans, we have to decide in this Primary, if we want to nominate a candidate who will be an easy target for the democrat machine out of Camden County.” Murphy said.

Murphy said the airport job was “created especially for Kelly by Gilmore and Ocean County Clerk Carl Block to enable Kelly to engage in the kind of payroll padding and pension scam activity that has become typical of  both Ocean and Burlington county political machines.”

Gilmore was the authority attorney and Block was a commissioner on the South Jersey Transportation Authority which operates the airport when Kelly’s controversial job was created especially for him in 1999.

“Kelly’s useless airport job violated every fundamental Republican economic principle,” Murphy said, “including efficient and economical government on all levels, strictures against wasting taxpayer’s money, and opposition to payroll padding and pension abuses.”

“Kelly’s job and the job description and required qualifications were apparently created simultaneously, but he was hired even though he did not have the college degree and the five years of aeronautical experience specified in the job requirement,” Murphy said.

“Despite his lack of qualifications, Kelly was given big annual raises which made the job a typical Gilmore-Block pension scam, and an example of cheating taxpayers who were paying the freight,” Murphy noted. 

“As an elected freeholder, Kelly gets full health benefits in addition to his salary. But instead of simply declining benefits he couldn’t use at the airport, Kelly arranged to have himself paid a 50% cash kickback every year on the cost of the benefits.  When I was an elected official, I declined health benefits, and, I did not have them from another source.  We should nominate a candidate who walks it likes he talks it; limited government means it starts with our elected officials.” Murphy said.