Thornton: Will Bakley Stay or Will He Go Now?

COURT HOUSE — The Thornton and Sheppard for Freeholder campaign in an April 20 release asked: “Will Ralph Bakley stay as a candidate for county freeholder, or will he drop out as part of Chairman Von Savage’s plan to put in a different candidate. At the Cape May County Regular Republican Organization’s Leaders Meeting of March 15, Mr. Bakley was asked whether he would stay in the race and see it through to the end. His answer: “Yes! Absolutely!”
But there is reason for concern.
Let’s look at the facts:
– It is now 49 days before the election on June 8, 2010, and John McCann and Ralph Bakley have not made a single joint appearance.
– There is no McCann-Bakley campaign.
– No McCann-Bakley Web site.
– No McCann-Bakley Facebook Page
– Nothing anywhere in all the mudslinging paid media that has been launched that says “Paid for by McCann-Bakley” on it.
But most interestingly, on Chairman David Von Savage’s website, CapeMay-Gop.com/category/candidates, there is a nice posting about candidate McCann, but not a single mention of Freeholder Ralph Bakley as a candidate in this primary.
One must ask the questions: Is Ralph Bakley staying or going? And if he is going, who is his replacement? And if there is to be a replacement, will Chairman Von Savage allow all of the Cape May County Republican Committee people to select that replacement? And if there is a plan to replace Bakley, why? And when was it hatched?
Given all the shenanigans that have gone on in this election cyle as orchestrated by David Von Savage and the division of his organization run by Norris Clark known as “New Direction,” Ralph Bakley needs to be 100% honest with the voters of Cape May County.
So the Thornton and Sheppard for Freeholder campaign has a simple question for Mr. Bakley that, respectfully, he should answer publicly: Are you going to drop out of this race to make way for a candidate selected by David Von Savage?
The voters deserve an answer to this question immediately,” the release concluded.