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Herald - Lantern - Dispatch Ife October '85

Assembly Candidates

Batten

i From Page 1 > the last decade for a county MUA sewage treatment plant at least partially. Batten maintained, because one of his Assembly opponents, former Wildwood Mayor Guy F Muziani. "embroiled that city in litigation with the MllA for five years over his decision not to sign a contract " According to Batten. Muziani "said. Would you sign a contract with no price tag on it?' I wonder what people with rawsewage in their bathtubs have to say about that." "Nothing's been done there." Batten added. referring to the Williams' dump in Swainton where more than 100 drums of toxic chemicals were discovered six years ago. Calling his cleanup solution "a sound piece of legislation" because "North Jerseyhas worse problems than we do." the challenger asked: "What's our incumbent assemblyman done in that regard?" Muziani. Batten answered, has introduced two bills during the most recent session. "I can't believe that's all he's done."" Muziani and fellow First District Assemblyman Joseph Chinnici are fond of crying that the Democratic-controlled Assembly blocks their legislative efforts through partisan politics. Batten noted "Then." he asked, "why does Guy Muziani. .say we need a Republican governor and Republican assemblvmen" NEITHER UK NOR ( MINSK I cospoasored a Millville-Yineland urban enter prise zone that would promote economic development in both Cumberland County cities. Batten complained Their Republican colleague. James R. Hurley, took credit for a state Senate bill. Batten added, but it was Camden County Assemblyman Wayne Bryant, a Democrat, who proposed the Assembly measure "It was the Democrats' bill." Batten insisted. and it passed 74-0. "He'll tell you that he's individually responsible for a study to complete Route 55." Batten predicted, referring to Muziani and the so-called "Road to Nowhere." Not a proponent of such studies. Batten noted that he's been driving on Route 55 since 1972 'and it's still not done and it's still not into Cape May County" as proposed by Muziani After the environment, completion of the roadway "should be the number two issue." Batten said "Society is only going to grow as fast as its communications and transportation systems." What about the proposed rail line to Atlantic City and a possible southern connection to the Cape? he asked "Is there a Cape May County initiative? If there is. I've missed it. missed it altogether " Farming in Cumberland County and commercial fishing in Cape May County "are dying." he griped, becaused Muziani. Chin nici and Hurley - the self-promoting, selfperpetuating First District GOP legislative team - fail to help either industry in Trenton. "VKR Y BASIC THINGS" can be done to bolster them. Batten said. like allowing tax credits for fossil fuels and equipment with greater depreciation on state tax schedules and better investment opportunities State legislators should push more lowinterest loans for new canneries and harbors that could transform the "ideal fishing ports" in Sea Isle and Cold Spring (Cape > May) Inlet into national models, he added. His opponents on the GOP's First District legislative team have yet to come up with an equitable means of funding beach preservation and restoration. Batten continued I-ast spring, he said. Muziani and Hurleytold the League of Municipalities that beach projects couldn't be financed from the state's general fund while 88 percent of those attending disagreed, "and most of them were Republicans." Chinnici and Muziani say they're not supporting a Hurley bill that would fund beach projects with a 50 cent tax on each $100 of real estate transferred. Muziani said he's for a line item now in the state budget. "He wasn't last spring." Batten recalled. "All because of one vote, which was surrendered for an aquarium." Muziani cost South Jersey 3.000-4.000 jobs in race track simulcasting and about $110,000 in lost revenue, his opponent maintained, paraphrasing Assemblyman Dennis Reiley. South Jersey legislators wanted to delay the so-called Baseball Bill which would have given the state Sports Exposition Authority power to buy sports complexes, to purchase and run motels and restaurants. Batten said Reiley wanted to hold up the bill because it also earmarked $24 million to purchase Monmouth Park race track. Batten added

HE SAID MUZIANI WAS the swing vote and cast it to release the bill which other South Jersey legislators wanted to hold so they could stop the Monmouth Park purchase and preserve simulcasting for Garden State and Atlantic City race courses. Batten argued that Muziani never read the Baseball Bill and exchanged his vote on it with the Kean administration for a South Jersey aquarium that was lost to Camden. The Democrat plans to introduce a bill if elected that would prohibit public officials like Muziani from even "applying for" lowinterest EDA (economic development! loans for themselves Muziani's corporation. Wildwood Diner II. received a $600,000 EDA loan in December 1980 and the following month purchased a Lower Township parcel on the Garden State Parkway, presumably from the proceeds of the loan. Batten said. Records show, he added, that the corporation bought that Cape Diner property < nowBonanza steak house i from Muziani and another owner who purchased it for a dollar "Why is that so important?" Batten asked. "because he is no longer « in business as Cape Diner i and because he didn't keep it open all year as required by the EDA loan." "Did he pay the loan back0" asked Batten. noting that the "low-interest (loan) is our money, man " As Batten sees him. Muziani is one of the faultiv parts of the local GOP machine that's controlled by county Republican chairman. Philip R Matalucci. the countytreasurer That machine. Batten said, is responsible for the sad business climate in the county, its stop-gap plans for combating beach erosion and its blind eye toward environmental hazards If local voters don't make the connections with those problems. Muziani and the county GOP machine. "I'm going to get my ass kicked" on Nov. 5. he predicted. "If people don't understand it by now." Batten reflected. "I'm certainly not going to raise their sensitivity to it in the last. ..weeks ol the campaign." He said he thinks voters have made the connections and will cast their ballots against business as usual from the GOP machine Voters. Batten said, are fed up with chronic county ailments like beach erosion, the Williams' dump, poor water and sewers, expensive county Ml'A projects and the ever-pending MUA kickback indictment trials. "THE ENTIRE EPISODE is an absolute disgrace and a blemish on the county." he said of the indictments from February 1984. Most of them have been canned but rumors persist of a deeper probe into local corruption. "We read about sealed indictments. ... official denials of investigations and the publicsuspicion that nothing will break until after the election." Ratten observed "(That > only dilutes the public confidence in government "What are the people supposed to believe9" he asked Yesterday. Batten was due back in court on his suit to keep Matalucci off the preelection airwaves and to have him removed as either county treasurer, county GOP chairman or a state Civil Service commissioner Batten argued that, by wearing the three hats. Matalucci exerts too much influence over votes from county employees They realize too well, said the candidate, that the man signing their pay checks and hearing their Civil Service appeals upstate is the same man who wants them to vote the straight Republican ticket Optimistic about his suit. Batten noted that the Civil Service Commission was formed to de-politize government employment. Gov. Thomas Kean required another GOP county chairman to resign before he was appointed to the commission. Batten recalled. HE'S BEEN PROMISED support, even from a non-partisan organization within the Republican's Ocean City stronghold, but Muziani doesn't see Batten as a serious threat. Batten's not as strong a challenger. Muziani said, as Cumberland County Freeholder Edward H. Salmon who raised some $64,000 to defeat the incumbent in 1983 and came within about 200 votes of doing so. Former Democratic county chairman James Iannone asked Batten to run that year against Hurley. Batten explained. "I elected not to run for state Senate because of Hurley's popularity and (because! I would pretty much have to run my own campaign." He also considred a 1983 Assembly bid but i Page 22 Please >

Am i co

( From Page 1 1 Assemblymen boast about their minor roles in its being done, their colleagues from Gloucester and Camden counties contend that they got the funding for it. "It's 16 years in office." the Democrat said of his opponents' total, "and we still don't have Route 55. Shall we give them two more9" he asked. His opponents. Amico noted, excuse their lack of legislative productivity by griping that the Assembly's Democratic majority hampers their attempts to push through bills. "My answer to that is. I'm a Democrat and I can get them through." Amico said. "I've already proven 1 can get bills through the Legislature. "I WAS PERSONALLY responsible for bringing in the National Transportation Safety Board <NTSB> for our fight." he said of his successful three-year lobbying to raise the state's minimum drinking age from 18-21. "We showed the State Police how to put it together." Amico added, referring to statistics that linked drunk driving to teenagers and death. "I'm not a rich man at all ; I don't have a lot of money." he continued, citing his $20,000 contribution toward the lobbying, "but it was something that I had to do." He's received awards from the state PTA and NTSB for that work but thinks the Legislature has since gone "overboard" on drunk driving laws. "I'm totally against sobriety checks and the severe penalties." Amico said. "They went from nothing to a complete turnabout." He and Muziani. however, are still battling over exactly what role the assemblyman played in raising the drinking age and whether it helped Earl Ostrander defeat him in the 1983 Wildwood mayoralty race. Muziani has linked that defeat to his vote for increasing the drinking age. He disputes his opponents' campaign literature that tells voters: "We raised the drinking age despite the Wildwood Assemblyman's opposition." "Let me show you something." Muziani said during his interview with this paper. "I'm going to make that guy ( Amico) look like a stupid ass." He furnished a list of Assemblymen like himself who voted to increase the drinking age. That not only hurt him at the polls but his family also lost business at the Wildwood Diner, he said. "And I'm going to give him a lecture on credibility." Muziani said of Amico and the campaign literature. "Gl'Y MUZIANI DOESN'T always tell the truth." countered Amico Sure, he con ceded. Chinnici and Muziani voted to raise the drinking age but Muziani waited until enough legislators (41> first voted to en sure passage of the measure To prove his point. Amico showed a photograph of the Assembly's electronic voting display on the day of the drinking age vote; the photo records Muziani's "yes" vote after the bill was approved "All he voted on was Matalucci's two bars." Amico complained, linking Muziani's vote to Avalon nightspots owned by county GOP chairman Philip A Matalucci Because of them. Matalucci even told

Amico to "back off" from the drinking age bill, he said. "If I were the people. I would be shooting mad," the Democrat said of sanitary sewage contamination that closed the Wiidwoods' beaches and backbays this past summer. That was the third time in a decade that local beaches were closed because of pollution, he recalled. "This is serious stuff you're talking about." Amico added, echoing complaints he's heard from tourists turned off by ear infections and other health problems they associate with their traditional but increasingly expensive seashore vacations. "I HAVE HEARD THAT from so manypeople it's incredible." said the candidate. "And you have all this happening with the Cape May County MUA — what's happened to the indictments?" he asked of those announced a year and a half ago; most of them have since been dismissed. "The only thing that's consistentlygood" at the MUA "is this," said the softspoken candidate, producing a copy of MUA bills from its public relations consultant. James R. Hurley Associates. Thev total $62,394 from 1983-'85 for the firm headed by the GOP state senator whose name it bears. Amico called the MUA-Hurley connection "a potential conflict of interest" like Democratic Assembly candidates before him. "I've been quite active, particularly with the drinking age. but also with insurance." he said of his efforts to change state laws. He's been trying to reverse auto insurance "rate equalization" that, he complained. is "totally unfair" to South Jerseymotorists who each subsidize North Jersey drivers to the tune of about $160 on local car insurance premiums. There are fewer drivers and. therefore, fewer accidents in South Jersey than in the more populated north. But the equalization law produces a regional accidentinsurance rate by reducing the upstate combination with the better South Jersey driving records. CHINNICI BLAMES Democratic legislators for that law but. Amico said. "He voted for it. Every legislator in our district approved the reforms' we now have. "All this is just a bunch of garbage," he said of the state's "Jersey Fresh" promotion of its farm crops. Although he doesn't see anything wrong with the idea, he disputes Chinnici 's part in it. "The involvement of Joe Chinnici in Jersey Fresh' is only an advertisement in their ad book" Amico added. "But he really didn't have anything to do with 'Jersey Fresh." " Chinnici 's "done nothing" to help South Jersey farmers who face a workers' drive to unionize, he continued. "Something's really wrong with that." Amico reflected, referring to labor rights of Haitian farm workers in Hammonton that should be weighed against those of financially strapped native Jersey farmers "You talk more like a Republican than a Democrat." Amico said he was told bymembers of the Private Enterprise Political Action Committee (PAC> which gave him its endorsement "This is the largest group of business organizations in New Jersey that supports candidates for state office." Amico noted in a press release "They only endorse candidates for state office who fight against high unemployment costs, increased taxes and government regulation. "I AM ESPECIALLY EXCITED with i the) endorsement." he added "I am the only Democrat candidate in the state ... to receive it They supported 34 Republicans and only one Democrat, and neither of the incumbents (Chinnici and Muziani) ... received their approval." Amico said PAC members told him "Joe Chinnici and Guy Muziani are a joke.' And they really are." Amico added "They don't do anything for anybody " "I am a very arch conservative." said the Vinelander who decided on a career in politics after heart surgery several years ago. "The object of the whole thing was to get my name known and to get into politics," he explained, referring to his first bid for public office, an unsuccessful write-in campaign during the 1981 state senate contest between Hurley and Cumberland County Freeholder Edward H. Salmon, a Democrat. In 1983, Amico ran unsuccessfully against lawyer Christopher Reiley for the i Page 22 Please •

Ex-Republicans > From Page 1 - Wildwood and Joseph Chinnici. 66. of Bridgeton for their First District (Cape May and Cumberland counties) seats in the state General Assembly Ex-Republicans. Batten and Amico say they were excluded from GOP politics and don't like the way that party operates locally anyway. They're running as Democrats for the $25,000-a-year, part-time legislative jobs. Voters in both counties will select the two highest vote getters from among the four candidates for the two-year Assembly terms. This newspaper profiles the Democratic challengers today and the incumbents next Wednesday. The challengers missed their first debate Oct. 1 in Stone Harbor but they're scheduled for a second session Saturday at the Executive Motor Inn. Vineland. Their third debate is slated 7:30 p.m Sept. 25 at Lower Township Consolidated School. 838 Seashore Rd., Cold Spring.