DeWeese Issues Statement Regarding His Career of Public Service

CREST HAVEN – 1st District Republican Senate Candidate Dave DeWeese issued the following statement following the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Legislative Reporting Day regarding his career of public service and outlining his conditions for debates this fall. DeWeese was joined by his Assembly running mates Sam Fiocchi and Suzanne Walters.
Statement from Dave DeWeese:
Thank you for coming out this afternoon.
As you know, my name is Dave DeWeese and I am running for State Senate against Jeff Van Drew.
I wanted to speak to the media today because based upon some things that we are hearing and based on the democrats’ approach in the last several elections; I think it is important to establish the record before it can be distorted.
I have no doubt that very soon Jeff Van Drew will begin to run negative radio and television ads and send political mail accusing me of being a pension padder based on my public service.
Let me say that I believe public service is a noble calling. I believe there are a great many people who are in public service jobs for all the right reasons. I am proud of my public service. I will not be apologizing for or defending my service or the pension that I receive as a result of my public service.
I was a municipal court judge for twenty two years. I took that job very seriously. Because I took it seriously, I was appointed by several different municipalities to be their judge.
I am sure that many people do not know what being a municipal court judge entails. Some people who do not understand the job will characterize it as a part time position. It is far from a part time position. As a municipal court judge, you are on call 24 hours per day, 7 days per week and 365 days per year. Basically every night there are calls between 11:00 pm and 6:00 am requesting the issuance of warrants, the setting of bail, the review of search warrants and requests for temporary domestic violence restraining orders. Requests for domestic violence restraining orders require the judge to take testimony over the phone from a victim of domestic abuse. The protection of these victims was of utmost importance. I conducted hundreds of DWI trials and criminal trials and made the difficult decisions that led to convictions that sent people to jail. I was not a pension padder. I was a dedicated public servant doing my best to serve the interests of justice.
But you won’t hear about that in the coming mud storm that Jeff Van Drew has planned.
Let me tell you about my pension. I had three years in the system as a municipal attorney and prosecutor before I became a judge. After twenty five years of contributing to the pension system, i now collect approximately $40,000 per year as a pension. I certainly didn’t get rich being a municipal court judge and I’m not getting rich off my pension.
There is a question that you should all ask Jeff Van Drew about his pension when I take his seat in the senate. As a result of his public service, he is going to be entitled to a state pension for his 4 part time elected positions as Mayor, Freeholder, Assemblyman and Senator (he served as Mayor and Freeholder at the same time). Is he willing to say now that if he attacks me in this campaign for having a pension that he will give up the pension that he is entitled to? Because if he is not, then he will be a hypocrite the minute his first negative campaign ad comes out. Get your mud boots out, because it is coming.
Let me talk now about debates.
I am here with my assembly running mates Sam Fiocchi and Suzanne Walters.
There have been debates in the past, but they have been vanilla exchanges that were choreographed. We don’t want that this year. We will debate our opponents anytime, anywhere, but not in a way that provides no information to the voters.
Here are our conditions for debates:
#1. We must hold at least one debate in each county in the district, Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic.
#2. These debates must have a wide open format. After questions from the sponsors, the voters must be allowed to ask questions from the floor without screening.
#3. The candidates must be permitted to ask at least three questions of each other. When did it become taboo for candidates to engage each other in questioning? Let’s take a page from Abraham Lincoln and have some direct back and forth between the candidates.
#4. At least one of the sponsors of the debate must broadcast the debate live on either radio or television and each campaign must be allowed to broadcast the debate over the internet if it wishes.
#5. Anyone in attendance may videotape or audiotape the debate and take photographs, as long as they don’t unnecessarily interfere with the debate.
#6. And finally, we propose that each debate be in a town hall format so that the audience can participate directly with the candidates, rather than having to just watch them sitting on a stage.
We want a clean, honest and open campaign. We want the voters to be involved. In short, we want this to be about the people we will represent, not about simply preserving the carefully crafted public image of the incumbents.
We will be sending these requirements to the organizations and media outlets that have sponsored debates in the past so that they may present these terms to our adversaries.
So let’s get down to debating in front of the voters. We anxiously await a response from Van Drew, Albano and Milam on whether they are willing to have wide open debates.