"NO Respect"  My only press release this campaign. My thanks from the Press?  Deafening silence.

To Neil Borowski, Executive Editor-Content Director, Atlantic City Press

Neil, I sent this email to John Froonjian, Juliet Fletcher and Carla and Jim.  This really needs attention if elections mean anything.  Really.... LoBiondo couldn't even be bothered with answering the Project Vote Smart Questionnaire after your paper and the Courrier Post specifically asked him to.  He has no one to blame for an article concerning what's discussed below, other than himself.  Thanks, Neil.

Press Release

10/27/2010

Gary Stein, Democratic candidate for United States Congress, New Jersey 2^nd district

With  6 days to the election, and still no head to head public debate by the candidates- thanks solely to Congressman Frank LoBiondo’s refusal to debate his opponents after being asked by the Atlantic City Press, the League of Women Voters and Stockton College to participate - I am now forced to publicly call on the newspaper press to investigate my charge that in the 2008 election, Frank LoBiondo grossly  misrepresented his  position on where he stood on the war in Iraq the year before, and thereby avoided any meaningful  debate on a supremely important issue during an election.  I am also charging that Mr. LoBiondo  is misrepresenting himself all over again this year, and has now upped the ante by  blatantly  lying (now that he has an opponent who accurately knows his position) when he’s asked in a controlled environment by the press- at my request, but with me not present-  whether or not he supported or opposed George W. Bush’s 2007 successful troop surge strategy.  Serious questions concerning his character have now been raised.  Our Congressman continues to lie, including this morning on the Don Williams Show when I called in, questioned him,  and then was limited by some pre-arrangement LoBiondo had with the show, and I was not permitted any follow up discussion.  Indeed the phone connection terminated immediately after I asked Mr. LoBiondo to state clearly for the record was he for, or against, the troop surge in 2007.  At the conclusion of Mr. LoBiondo’s long response to the question posed several minutes earlier, Mr. Williams asked Mr. LoBiondo, point blank, was he for, or against, the 2007 troop surge.  He stated he was for.   He continues to not tell the truth, and by his actions this morning when asked once by me, and once by Don Williams was he for, or against, the troop surge, Mr. LoBiondo leaves the press no other choice but to clear this up.

Proof that Mr. LoBiondo was against the troop surge can be found in the

Atlantic City Press, Wednesday, March 7, 2007.

Activists Target Congress Over Iraq Troop Surge

                                             By PETE McALEER Statehouse Bureau

 

 U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, missed the vote to attend his father-in-law's funeral, but in an earlier speech on the floor of the House he said he opposed Bush's escalation plan.

For the record, Mr. LoBiondo spoke if front of an empty House chamber in 2007 as he read into the record, as being against the surge.  Three years later, when the rest of the country is holding their politicians feet to the fire, John Dingell, an 85 year old colleague of Mr. LoBiondo- who has represented his district since 1955 and wins with larger margins than  even Frank- debated his opponent!!  Mr. Dingell needed a walking cane to get to his debate chair.  Mr. LoBiondo is a fit and trim 64 years old.  Mr. LoBiondo was elected to a vacant seat in Congress in 1994, the year Newt Gingrich’s contract with America promised open, honest government, if we the people would throw the good old boys out of office and elected Newt’s fresh new faces.   Mr. LoBiondo included himself in that group and ran on a platform that had term limits as its main idea.  Having broken his promise to serve only 6 terms, now 16 years after first being elected, he won’t debate his Democratic opponent because he can’t withstand the scrutiny of my questioning him on the issue of Iraq and Afghanistan going forward, if he can’t defend his actions looking back.

I ask the press to get to the bottom of my accusation that Mr. LoBiondo is lying through his teeth, about a position that might well have been courageous in 2007-2008 election cycle, had he defended, or even admitted that he was initially wrong about the surge.  It would have been so easy in 2008 to be open and honest.  His Democratic opponent was against the war all along, and was against the troop surge even when it showed signs of working!

If the surge was not successful what would Mr. LoBiondo be telling us today? He might be saying that he opposed the President of his party, and history proved him, Frank, right.

If Mr. LoBiondo is sent back to Washington by near acclimation, as it now appears, what can we expect in the future when tough votes come up, if what I’m asserting about his character now, is correct and he gets a pass on this?  His hubris will grow, and that can be very dangerous thing. This is an election!  Now’s the time for fact checking and getting to the bottom of this issue once and for all, not next week, not next year.  The voters deserve it, the veterans and their families deserve it.  News organizations, if they’re to be credible, must investigate and report.

Gary Stein, 1729 Darmstadt Ave., Mullica Tsp, NJ   cell 609-703-1741

Talk show host Don Williams can be reached at 653-1400 extension 118.



                       
                           Gary Stein (Democrat)

                              

.