While Voters Seek Change and Leadership, Myers Resorts to Cheap Shots, Ignores Corruption in His Own Backyard

A PROFILE IN PETTINESS
While Voters Seek Change and Leadership, Myers Resorts to Cheap Shots
Ignores Corruption in His Own Backyard; Makes Unwarranted Charges to Distract Attention from his Support for Bush's Disastrous Economic Policies

Contact: Mark Warren, (856) 222-9707

October 7, 2008

For more than a year, Chris Myers has turned a blind eye to wholesale corruption at the Burlington County Bridge Commission, which is run by his political allies. The scandal cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet Myers never said a word. Now he once again is showing his low regard for the taxpayers by dropping any pretense that he is concerned with the financial crisis that threatens the economic security of all Americans – instead inexplicably deciding to criticize public safety improvements and other worthy projects benefiting the taxpayers.  

"While the voters are crying out for leadership amid the greatest economic crisis in our lifetime, Chris Myers is wasting the closing weeks of this campaign by hurling false, scurrilous personal attacks instead of engaging in a serious discussion of the issues," said Mark Warren, campaign manager for Third District congressional candidate John Adler. "Mayor Myers' behavior clearly shows that he is more interested in the old-style politics of personal destruction than finding solutions to the very serious problems that the voters care about. His blatant inattention to those issues is a slap in the face to the people of the Third District, who are looking for a strong and committed advocate for them and their families in Washington."

Warren said that Myers, while completely ignoring the serious issues on the minds of voters, has spent nearly a week leveling false accusations regarding Adler's support for public projects in his district. Warren said the programs receiving state funding were entirely legitimate, including Police Department & community center improvements.  He said that Adler was doing his job as a legislator to request the funding and found it bizarre and reckless that Myers would suggest otherwise. As Myers is well aware, Warren said, numerous state legislators, including a number of Republicans, asked for and received portions of the same fund of state money for projects in their home districts.

Warren said it was sheer hypocrisy for Myers to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder today with state Republican chairman Tom Wilson, a lobbyist and former partner of the lobbyist convicted of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit payments from the Republican-run Burlington County Bridge Commission. The kickback scheme is still under investigation by federal officials.

"Has Chris Myers ever asked Tom Wilson to tell the U.S. Attorney's Office everything he knows about the Bridge Commission scam that ripped off so much money from the taxpayers?" Warren said. "Chris Myers has never said Word One about this scandal. Unlike John Adler, he has never challenged his Republican allies to come clean about the shameful conduct at the Bridge Commission, and he has never demanded that the hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen in the scandal be returned to the taxpayers."

"Perhaps now we know why Mayor Myers has remained silent," Warren said. "As his appearance with Tom Wilson shows, he is too close to the people associated with the sordid activities that occurred at the Bridge Commission."

Warren concluded by noting that Myers "clearly will do or say anything to divert attention from the issues of concern to the voters in this campaign. Like his ally and political fundraiser President Bush, Mayor Myers has repeatedly said that our economy is 'basically strong,' even as Americans and their families knew otherwise. It's evident that Chris Myers will stoop to anything to distract the voters' attention from that sad reality."