Collins Calls on Clark to Debate Middle Issues

COURT HOUSE — GOP candidate Melanie Collins called on Democrat Michael Clark to meet her in a public forum to debate the important issues facing Middle Township. Voters will go to the polls in November to decide whether Collins or Clark will replace outgoing Committeewoman Susan Delanzo.
“It’s been six months since this race began,” Collins said. “I have made it clear to voters that I support the reform agenda of Dan Lockwood and Tim Donohue. I’m running to advance that agenda by bringing a unified consensus for bold and positive change to Township Committee.”
Collins said that like many voters, she is in the dark on Clark’s positions on important issues facing the township. Clark has not discussed his decision to abandon the Republican Party to become a Democrat in April 2011. Nor has he offered any policy agenda to address the many fiscal challenges faced by local government.
“What was it exactly that attracted Mike Clark to the Middle Township Democrat party of Nate Doughty, Jim Alexis and Steve Barry?” Collins asked. “The Democrats doubled the cost of government to our taxpayers between 2004 and 2011. Does Michael Clark support a return to average annual levy increases of over 10 percent? I certainly don’t.”
Collins said her goal was to build on the solid foundation of fiscal responsibility laid by the new GOP majority. The past two years have seen a reduction in overall spending of over $700,000, compared to 2011, the last year of Democrat control. Under Republican leadership, Township Committee has also refinanced some of the sewer department’s debt burden, saving an estimated $1.4 million in the process.
“I applaud Mayor Lockwood and Deputy Mayor Donohue, as well as our hard working township employees, for doing what many said could not be done,” Collins said. “They have begun to bend the cost curve downward for local government,” she added.
Collins, a member of the Middle Township Zoning Board with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, said she was also attending all Township Committee meetings and is committed to researching and offering solutions to the many complex challenges facing local government.
“I think the voters deserve hard working and well informed candidates,” Collins said. “The voters also deserve opportunities to hear from and question both candidates. Every election is a choice. In this election, voters will decide whether the township should slide back towards the stale, lazy, tax and spend politics of the past or whether they will endorse the growing momentum for hard working, right-sized government, and innovative, positive change,” Collins continued
The Committee to Elect Melanie Collins has sent a written invitation to the Clark campaign to debate the issues in three separate forums to be moderated by the Middle Township Taxpayers Association.
Ordered and paid for by Committee to elect Melanie Collins, Scott Bluth Treasurer, 21 Acorn Lane, CMCH 609-465-9267