Donohue, Greco Raise Concerns Over Process Behind Surprise Milam Assembly Substitution
By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
No one was surprised when Assemblyman Matt Milam announced that he wouldn’t see reelection in LD1 this fall, Save Jerseyans.
Pundits on both sides of the aisle were shocked, however, when he also announced his resignation from the State Assembly last night, too, and was subsequently replaced on both the Democrat ticket and in State House by Sgt. Robert Andrzejczak.
Sgt. Andrzejczak’s biography is impressive! Cape May County Republican Chairman Mike Donohue and Cumberland County Chairman Bob Greco are less impressed with public reports of the procedural process through which he purportedly joined the General Assembly (h/t NJ.com). In fact, Donohue and Greco have alleged that the appointment may have been improperly performed if published reports of the night’s events prove true.
The latest? PolitickerNJ.com is reporting that LD1 Democrats plan to redo the process.
In a Friday afternoon press release, the LD1 Republican chairs cite N.J.S.A. 19:13-20 to support their argument…
When filling a vacancy where members of two or more county committees are empowered to select a candidate to fill a vacancy, it shall be the responsibility of the chairman of said county committees, acting jointly not later in any case than the seventh day following the occurrence of the vacancy, to give notice to each of the members of their respective committees who are so empowered of the date, time and place of the meeting at which the selection will be made, that meeting to be held at least one day following the date on which the notice is given.”
The LD1 GOP Chairmen also cited public accounts of Thursday’s events published on NJ.com, The DailyJournal.com, and PressofAtlanticCity.com to support their argument.
“The County Chairmen were required to properly notice a meeting of the duly elected Democratic County Committee Members in the 1st Legislative District and tell them the reason for the meeting was to fill a vacancy for State Assembly, not Senator Van Drew,” said Donohue by way of a Friday afternoon press release. “Furthermore, the law states that the meeting cannot occur until there is a vacancy for at least one day after the notice is given, yet all the news reports indicate Assemblyman Milam announced his resignation last night and then the vacancy was immediately filled on the spot. That is a clear violation of the law. You can’t notice a meeting to fill a vacancy that doesn’t exist yet, and you can’t fill that vacancy immediately after it occurs.”
“Clearly Senator Van Drew and the Democratic bosses were more concerned with squelching any intra-party dissent to their handpicked candidate than they were about following the law,” added Greco. “I feel badly for Sgt. Andrzejczak and his family that such a proud moment would be tainted like this, but we believe that the legality of this move should be reviewed by the State and, if necessary, be re-done properly and in accordance with the law.”
Stay tuned for developments, Save Jerseyans…
