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Herald A Lantern 21 October 81

Republican Incumbent The Assembly Race Democrat Challenger

< From Page2> municipahty along the shore controlling dunes dunes legislation And here thisfellow comes and tell us we don't know what we re doing Now. come on' We ll admit that we have some greedy people midst - both parties, not jtist one - that .would do anything for the almight dollar But the greatest majority of the people are levelheaded, thinking people •and want to make sure that our develop ment of the shore development of any other project in the First District - is done properly and in an orderly fasljion • P'ktiv Does that, mean from your Anatyer »hof f/o ma/o^y o/ the residents . '<»/ Wildwood ■wanted /egilized gambling in Wildwood, they nhould be able to have it? ( hinnirl: Now you're talking about something that was on referendum for a specific purpose Now wait Now I don't want-to have to back off on that for this reason If you recall, the reason we have casino gambling ift Atlantic City is because there was a referendum that said . Shall we permit gambling in Atlantic City? And if I'm not mistaken, it's a five-year pilbt project Anyhow, in order for the City of Wildwood to have; casino gambling. I think

get the results of what's happening. Afld then, of course, in order to expand it to any other area other than Atlantic City,.! think it’s a .statewide referendum, I really do. That’s the way I feel You tell me Home Rule Well. Home Rule did not give it to Atlantic City* If was a statewide referendum. which is the people. O’kay. so we’re talking about people, hot the government '• ft's less than two weeks before election. Do you have anything to say to [he voters of Cape May County in particular? Chlnniti: Let me say this: I’ve had the pleasure of serving Cape May and •.Cumberland counties for the past 10 years as an Assembly mb n. rhavp tried to do everything possible to accommodate the needs and demands of the peoples of both Cumberland and Cape May. Ouf-needs in both counties differ somewhat. Except for agriculture, the needs of both counties are truly dfferent from one another One is a tourism county, which truly lives On tourists and the development of the seashore, and the needs of dredging and beach erosion and what have you. And the other, Cumberland County, has the problems of keeping industry^ rolling and dealing with DEP to make .sure we don’t

‘‘l']have truly tried to help all facets of government and industry and commerce in both counties. ”

it's got to be put on the ballot again And I'm hot talking about the City of Wildwood. .Because it was a statewide referendum that caused it to happen in Atlantic City. And it’s got to be a statewide referendum to expand it Now. in either case the people spoke whether it be Atlantic City or Wildvjfcod or Bridgeton. Vineland, MiNvifie • O’hay. Can you tey us what your posi*, Hon is on legalising gambling outside of Atlantic City? Would you favor that or. Chlrfnlci: I’ll 1)0 very honest with you. L would rather — I think we Ought to go a few • more years and see what's happening inr Atlantic City-And I think at that poin^we can make a more intelligent decision on whether there ought to be expansion of it. I think that the purpose''of legalized gambling in Atlantic City has bggunj:eol(\> to show what the proponents of it were trying to do They were trying to pull Atlantic City out of the mud — and it was down on the bottom of the barrel because it was really going to the dogs And now Atlantic City is becoming one of the most prosperous. most progressive, most profitable cities in the world — forget the United States ••O'kay 'If there were people In — oh, Wildu'iwd. or Bridgeton, or anyplace -> , who said. Hey. I think legalized gambling could help our town too. would your response be. "Well, let's hold off a few more years and see how it actually comes to fruition in Atlantic City before we take any action on that elsewhere,..” ' Chinnici. Ix*t's go thru with .the original referendum; let's find out, let’s

destroy, for example one of the most important industries in our county, the glass industry. I have truly tried to help all facets of government and industry and commerce in both counties. And I can assure you that if I'm.elected — and I'm certainly hoping I am or I wouldn't be running — I will continue to, first of all, service not only the municipalities, but will continue to service anyone who writes to me with a problem. And we don’t turn anybody down. We don't even care what their politics are; when they come to my office with a problem, that we will service them to the best of our ability no matter what the need is. And 99 per cent of the time that we get in-; volyed in the assistance, of a program or something that a constitutent needs, we're 'successful. We follow up on it. We-try to accommodate. We answer our mail. We try to do the job and try to do it right. I have never watched the clock during my 10 years of tenure as an Assemblyman representing the First District. If it required one hour or twenty-fivd hours to complete a project, if it needed-continuous effort without a break — it got it. It's been a pleasure representing. And the fact that I’ve represented the people of both counties has made me the recipient of tens of thousands of new friends I never had before, and I will cherish their friendship all of my life. » /aside, at end of interview. I really should have said something about my run- . ning mate. Guy Muziani, who I feel is one of the most competent men that I'll ever run with. I feel he’s a good guy.

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(FTomPage2) in [the state legislature]. One would have made it a 10-year, others maybe 100 years finally they came up with a 40-year figure. That figure wash compromise, as I understand it, because that number of years would probably eliminate perhaps as many as 90 per cent of the claims. This is the way I'm told. The way things would have been: Apparently the claims could have been against as many as 17 of the v 21 counties and for as little as perhaps 25 ppr cent, and as much as 50 per cent of the total larid mass of New Jersey. So then they came up with this 40 years, which would eliminate perhaps 90 per cent of the claims,(the total number of claims, and allow those people, who resided on ground or had homes built on.ground that had been dry for thfe 40 years to, in effect, retain ownership of that ground without having to purchase* it frdm the state, or pay money for it. That’s the way I understand it. • Would you agree that there is tremendous misepneeption on the part of 6 lot of homeowners right here, in Cape May County who think that if they go out and ap prove this question, that someone from the state is absolute’ barred ... a couple years .from now to come down and knock on their doof and tell them; All right, yoS live on the backbay in Stone Harbor and therefore we are here from the state to talk turkey about your tiparian lands. Because If’s our impression that a lot of people in Cape May Couffty who live literally on the waterfront feel that if t^tey approve this refirendum, theV will •Ndt have to pay the state fyr riparian lands. And, again, we stress the waterfroniaspect. Because if we read this thing corrtKtly, it only deals with land that has not-beemjlowed by the tides at any point in 40yars. That’s why we mentioned the 1962 sto>m, because that '62 storm put water over a lot of land. Wovds: Correct me ull’m wrong. Do you mean perhaps where there has been development where we have manmade lagoons or where we’ve filled In, up to the beachfront for example and built houses there, where it may not have been dry?... • No, we're re/erring to a property that’s (for example) right on the beachfront where there’s no doubt that in 1962 the land was under water... Woods : There are areas, yes, that in 1962 were under water. But that was more from

that probably 4<) per cent of the people who own houses here — even my house that I'm sitting in right now — we probably don’t own the ground that our house is on. And then they would come to us and say: Well, in orddr to give you clear title to your property — the fact is. you otoe us for the ground your property is on. Sb, we’re going to let you buy it from us and we’re going to let you buy it at today’s current market value, not what It was worth 40, 50, 100 years ago { And we may give ybu a release; we may not. But we're going to make you buy that. * Well, in that respect I’m very much for the Riparian referendu, for example, because I think that is really taking personal property rights away from people. Where most of us haveHived in the homes or owned the homes and it's quite obvious that these haven’t been tidal lands for atleast 40, or at'least 70 years for that matter. But to go back to the early 1800s was kind of absurd, actually. • Q'kay. do I assume you will agree that as we have been talking, a crucial point of this entire discussion is the definition of tidal land? Woods: Yes. • O’kay. let's get off this topic (and onto another]; In our interview with Senate candidate Ed Salmon, he likened his political philosophy to that of Cong Bill Hughes of your hometown of OUean City. You chair the Congressman's District-: * wide AdvisbYy Council. As a state) 'legislator, would you have the ear of Bill Hughes — or wouldn't he show .favoritism? Woods: Well, I don't think Bill Hughes is the,flrind of person that would show favoritism (quote unquote) to anyone. I think everyone would be. treated as an equal. However, there are some relationships between people that are a little closer than other relationships, for exam-

“...I really have no master frOm the standpoint of a political organization or a political County chairman that I have to account to..."

wave wash, or from high tide, or... • • Sure, but it’s our impression that under this Riparian Question, that any land that was under water ... at any time from high* tide in 4b years — whether or not it wds caused by a northeast storm or a hurricane — is a.riparian land. Woods: That’s not my impression. I do not have thatimpression ... My impression was that if It was under water — in other words, likefbieadowland or marshland or under water^rr normally under mean high tide; that tnat would be tidal land The mere fact that it had been washed by flood tides or tidal waves or the accumulation of water — that is not my impression as being riparian or tidal land • There is, then, at least between us, a question on that aspect ... Let’s talk about land /upon which/ there is absolutely no argument that if is land that-is flowed by tidal water. That land, regardless^oflhe vote on this referendum, will not change. That will be /remain/ riparian land no matter... Woods-..That’s my impression, yes. • O’kay- So that, anyone who owns such land who goes out and approves this re/ereijdum, will not be, let’s say, saving themselves from a fate with the star i Woods: That’s quite true. They’rfc probably part of that 10 per cent — you know* I said the 90 per cent that would have been excluded from most of it — which is within the 40 years. Yes. • Now, to your point. Woods: My problem here is, the Ward I represent [as a City Councilman] — the northern most area of Ocean City, surrounded by water except that (we’re more or less thfcjeninsula part of Ocean City). We’ve beeApId that 40 per cent at least of my particular ward, from Fourth St. to Longport Bridge, would probably be considered tidal lands if they used the maps back into the early 1800s. Which meant

^Hughes and I have been close personal friends now for about 2Q years. We live within blocks of each other. We belong to‘so many organizations ... and so many* things togetner. He's «one of the very reasons — not that I’m easily influenced — why to^ay that I'm a registered Democrat [before 1971, Woods was a Republican], Because the two of us have always sort of had the same.idealistic philosophy. We’ve always been anti-one party system or the same organization that’s pushed things

down people's throat. In that respect we agree an awful lot together. Yes, I was his campaign manager in 1974. I learned a great degl traveling six counties with’him about government. I served seven years, I tAlieve, as his District-wide Advisory CoVnmittee chairman — which gave me entree to an awful lot on information on the national level and, of course, gave me entree into a number of circles in Washington as well. We have a very close personal relationship, as well as a political relationship. And I think we pretty much agree on the same philosophy. I don’t think that we could be considered totally narrow-minded one way as far as party pplitics is concerned. Idon’t think we ever could, both of uS... • Wbaf do you mean by that? Woods: Well, I mean we'he registered Democrats but I think we’ve always taken sort of a nonpartisan approach to representing people ... That’s always been our philosophy. Bill and I both have some of our own party people get mad at us because they think maybe we should be a little bit more narrow in our thinking or in our work as far as our own party members are concerned... • All right. So it’s serve the people, and if you serve the party that’s a plus? Woods: Yes. But I think we’re both outspoken. I know we both vote our convictions. And we’re both very independent thinkers. Bill can go for or against his party, depending on how he personally thinks it’s going to benefit his constituency. That’s his primary concern! Not ly>w he's going to benefit his party, but how he’s going to benefit the people who he represents And that’s always been my philosophy. • Last question. One of your opponents is also an elected municipal officeholder who makes his living in a major Jersey Cape resort city. Why should we vote for Bill (Page22 Please)