Vernon: Burrell won’t say where he stands on Murphy’s illegal Sanctuary State scam

The New Jersey Herald is reporting that Vernon Mayoralty candidate Howard Burrell has refused to take a position on Democrat Governor Phil Murphy’s Sanctuary State directive that protects criminal illegal immigrants from being detained for federal authorities.  According to the Herald: 

“During the forum, the mayoral candidates were asked to weigh in on two hot-button issues - same-sex marriage and immigration.

Both said they would have no objection to performing same-sex marriage ceremonies but differed when asked about New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s directive limiting the degree to which local and county authorities may cooperate in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. A ballot initiative supporting the position taken by Sheriff Michael Strada will ask county voters in the upcoming election whether county resources should be made available to ICE for this and other purposes.” 

Burrell said he would support the Governor’s directive or, as he put it, “support the rules whatever they are.”  His opponent, Dan Storey, said:  “I support the sheriff wholeheartedly, 100%.”

The Murphy administration claims its directive is designed to build “trust” with illegal immigrant communities.  In fact, by limiting the cooperation between local and federal law enforcement, the Murphy directive creates a “sanctuary” for all sorts of criminal behavior – including human trafficking, the sexual exploitation of women and children, the illegal importation of narcotics and opioids, and the illegal importation of firearms. 

Howard Burrell is already in some controversy over a potential campaign finance reporting violation.  It is common knowledge that a late summer poll was conducted on behalf of Burrell, an announced candidate for the non-partisan office of Vernon mayor.  It is understood that the poll was conducted for Burrell’s campaign and paid for by a major developer in Sussex County.

It was a “live caller” poll – not a push-button one – and so the cost must have been upwards of $10,000.  Certainly something of value.   

The current mayor’s son received the polling call – as did dozens of others.  It was conducted over several evenings and was rather lengthy, testing the name identification of each of the three candidates for mayor.  So why is there no mention of it on Howard Burrell’s mandatory campaign finance and expense report filed on October 5, 2019, and available today for inspection?

Howard Burrell was a Democrat Freeholder until he was defeated for re-election in 2002 by 4,000 votes.  He managed Democrat Dan Perez’ 2017 Freeholder race against Republican Freeholder Director Herb Yardley.  Perez lost by 7,000 votes.  

We note these things because Howard Burrell should, by now, understand New Jersey election law.  The rules are clear about reporting both monetary contributions and “things of value” – like a poll. 

It is important for candidate Howard Burrell to explain why the expenditure for polling was not listed on his mandatory campaign and expense report.  Was it an oversight?  We will await his explanation.

Sussex Democrat Chair’s “X-Rated” video

By Sussex County Watchdog

We believe in free expression. 

The Sussex County Democrats do not.  State Democrats asked them to find something on the county Republican Chairman.  Murphy operative Leslie Huhn “friended” his Twitter page, and two days later the Sussex County Democrats’ Communications Director was in front of the Sussex County Community College Board of Trustees, asking that the Republican be fired.  It was a partisan political scam by people looking to be “offended” in order to score political points.

Worst still is the role played by SCCC Trustee Howard Burrell.  Last year, when Burrell wanted to be a trustee, this website wrote in support of him.  Burrell gave his word of honor that he would not be political while a member of the college board.  Then he sat there while he was running for Mayor of Vernon.  He didn’t even disclose that he was campaigning when he took a vote against the Republican Chairman.  Just days later, he campaigned at a Democrat political event with the very Democrats who slashed education funding in Sussex County.  An ethical person would have recused himself from taking that vote.  But not Burrell.  

The question is:  Why didn’t SCCC Trustee Chairman Bill Curcio ask Burrell to recuse himself?  Why did Curcio and the board allow the college to be used this way – to sink into partisan politics? 

Yes, we believe in free expression… but hypocrisy needs to be addressed too.

Katie Rotondi, the Sussex County Democrat Chairwoman, has led the stalking of other people’s social media pages.  She and her fellow stalkers have found things to be “offended” by and have demanded that people be punished.  But has anyone looked at what she puts out?

She isn’t re-tweeting something by mistake.  She produces and edits this stuff.  She promotes it.  And there is a whole lot of it.  What follows is one of the milder examples of her stuff (and make sure no children are around to see this)…

https://vimeo.com/182943568

There are things in this video that many people in Sussex County would find to be offensive.  We highly doubt that we could get Bill Curcio and Howard Burrell and the other members of the SCCC Board of Trustees to read out some of the lines in this video.  They would be too embarrassed to do so… although we might just show up and ask them to. 

The SCCC trustees essentially allowed the Sussex Democrat Chairwoman to script their proceedings.  With the help of the SCCC’s newly hired Democrat law firm – a major funder of state Democrat campaigns – Rotondi and the state Democrats used the college to implement a political strategy that actually involved one of their trustees as a Democrat candidate.  This is a very serious ethical issue for the college.

In the midst of turkey vulvas and facial treatments and peeing on desks, we think this video should be reworked to show footage of the trustees… you know, talking and reacting and stuff like that.   After all, they allowed themselves to become part of Katie Rotondi’s body of work, so they should be part of her reel.  Call it performance art.    

Stay tuned…

SCCC Trustee Burrell (D) running for Mayor of Vernon

So now we know what tonight’s circus is in aid of…

Politics.  Real scumbag politics.  The kind that masquerades as self-righteousness when it is really only about self-dealing.

It turns out that for some time now, SCCC Trustee Howard Burrell has been discussing and planning a comeback political career.  Trustee Burrell was a Democrat Freeholder until he was defeated for re-election in 2002 by 4,000 votes.  Sussex County Democrat Committee Chairwoman Katie Rotondi and Murphy county coordinator Leslie Huhn are both Burrell backers.  

We understood why Democrats like Dan Perez and Lorraine Parker wanted to hold an anti-Trump rally disguised as a special public meeting of the SCCC trustees, but we couldn’t figure out why SCCC Board Chairman Bill Curcio went along with it.  Now we know. 

SCCC Trustee Howard Burrell managed Democrat Dan Perez’ 2017 Freeholder race against Republican Freeholder Director Herb Yardley.  Perez lost by 7,000 votes.  Now Perez is returning the favor and supporting Burrell.

The SCCC Board of Trustees dumped a Sussex County firm as its attorney and hired the Union County Democrat machine firm of former State Senator Ray Lesniak.  So it is official.  The facts surrounding this appointment are shocking and will be dealt with in length but suffice to say that Ray Lesniak was a big defender of the corrupt practice of pay-to-play.

So now we know why some players on the SCCC Board of Trustees have dragged their colleague of seven years through the dirt for something he’s apologized for again and again…

Politics.  Dirtbag politics.  The kind of politics that sacrifices human decency, forgiveness, and pity for self-advancement. 

Sussex County Community College isn’t supposed to be about politics.  The SCCC Board of Trustees aren’t supposed to create venues by which to hang one trustee so that another can launch his political comeback campaign.

In fact, using SCCC facilities for partisan political purposes is explicitly against the rules of the Internal Revenue Service.  The process by which an executive session of the Board was called (a trustee is not “personnel” and no lawsuit has been filed by any party) and a public meeting held could pose legal hurdles for the SCCC.

Curiously, Howard Burrell launched his original political career 30 years ago in the midst of the same rhetoric being used by some Democrats today… accusing anyone they don’t like of “racism” and “bigotry” while they push legislation that even most Democrats say is anti-Semitic.  It seems some Democrats have learned nothing in 30 years.

Also worth noting are the assurances made by Trustee Burrell to the Freeholder Board at the time of his appointment just last year.  Burrell’s appointment had been held up by an earlier Freeholder Board over concerns that he would use his position on the SCCC Board of Trustees as a springboard to political office.  The current Freeholder Board appointed him after being assured that politics would not be part of it.  This has obviously turned out not to be the case and Trustee Burrell will have some explaining to do.

It looks like former Freeholder Carl Lazzaro was right about Howard Burrell and Watchdog was wrong to have advocated for Burrell’s appointment to the SCCC Board of Trustees.  We admit our mistake.

Democrats want to tell us what we can & can’t laugh at.

By Andy Gide

On the Statement from SCDC Chair Katie Rotondo…

I was very offended by the chair of the Sussex County Democratic Committee’s use of the word “Chairwoman” in the opening line of her statement regarding the Community College Board of Trustees. I mean, how unwoke!

Does “she” get that the gender neutral term is “Chair” and that “Chairwoman” is not only misogynistic but transphobic as well? This from the so-called “boss lady” of a purportedly “progressive” organization and a camp follower of Governor Murphy himself. How offensive and from a source who should know better!

How many isms and phobias can you list?

Ms. Rotondo, who claims affiliations on both sides of the aisle, strings together a litany of condemnations against her Republican counterpart, Mr. Jerry Scanlan. Against him she levels charges of “racism, sexism, prejudice, homophobia, religious intolerance, xenophobia and more”. Why not list it? Did Ms. Rotondo run out of time, or space? Did her memory lapse? Or was the spelling too much for her?

One thing Ms. Rotondo didn’t list is anti-Semitism. How could she? The anti-Semitism of the four Congresswomen is whose names Ms. Rotondo started this jihad is well established by other Democrats. So anti-Semitism is something that you will not hear her discuss.

It is clear that Ms. Rotondo has a personal dislike for Mr. Jerry Scanlan. Why else would she spend the time sifting through tens of thousands of “tweets” on his private social media page to find a handful she could claim “offense” over? Perhaps she followed him, went through his garbage, his laundry, his underwear?

Who is Ms. Rotondo to say what is and what isn’t racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or intolerance, or xenophobic? She is a Murphy operative who resides in Sussex County. Someone with an opinion among a billion people with opinions. All have their individual interpretations of what is racist, or sexist, and so on.

There is a great deal of political comedy these days. Some of it is very good, some of it falls flat. Has Ms. Rotondo ever complained about a Democrat? Of course not. Too often what you laugh at has more to do with your political party registration than a healthy sense of humor. Then there is the more recent phenomenon of wishing to suppress what you don’t find funny, of using one of those labels to suppress it.

Who is Ms. Rotondo to tell us what we can and can’t laugh at? Who gave her that power? Certainly not the people. Nobody voted for her. Murphy appointed her.

If she were a true “social justice warrior” we would have heard from her when fellow Murphy operative Katie Brennen was raped by a Murphy higher-up and told to shut up and take it. But where was Ms. Rotondo? Nowhere. Silent. She does as she is told.

Mr. Jerry Scanlan sits on the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College (SCCC) an entity that was found to be corrupt not too many years ago, when a few of its trustees had to resign. From everything we hear, Mr. Scanlan has served the Board well and has helped to reform it. Although he is the Chair of the Sussex County Republican Committee (and as such, Ms. Rotondo’s direct competitor), Mr. Scanlan has never been known to bring partisan politics into the Board’s meetings.

Now, thanks to Ms. Rotondo, partisan politics has been brought into the Board’s meetings and will, if left unchecked, corrupt and disfigure the entire community college.

Not very long ago, there was another attempt to bring partisan politics into the Sussex County Community College’s Board of Trustees. It involved the appointment of Howard Burrell to the Board.

Howard Burrell was a former Freeholder and active in partisan politics for the Democratic Party. Among the people he supported were some very controversial characters including those who represented importers of narcotics into our region.

Some thought that in the midst of an opioid crisis that is ending countless lives, a decision to support such a candidate should count against Mr. Burrell. The all elected Republican Freeholder Board chose to ignore the partisan political record of Mr. Burrell and appoint him anyway. Partisan politics was not allowed to be a factor. The actions of Ms. Rotondo will change all of that.

Because of Ms. Rotondo’s need to spy on her neighbors, to be offended, and to bring partisan politics into the Board of Trustees of Sussex County Community College, now it will always be about partisan politics. All the time. The question is… will anyone ever pass muster again?

Everyone should be horrified over what she has done. Everyone should condemn her destructive and oppressive actions.