It’s safe to say that the Ellen Karcher and Jennifer Beck are the only two legislative candidates arguing not over Christmas tree items, but over actual Christmas trees.
Even though a recent Star-Ledger editorial called Beck’s attack against Karcher for taking advantage of a farming tax break for her Christmas tree farm “preposterous,” and although Beck’s charge that Karcher only sold six Christmas trees each year was off (it was six acres), Beck still sought to use the issue to her advantage. Today she issued a press release with several questions for Karcher about the status of her business, saying that since it appears to be a cash business, she wants to examine its receipts and tax records.
“It is possible everything may be in order, but this information was not included on her financial disclosure forms until 5 months ago,” said Beck in a statement. “Whether she sells six trees or a dozen, Mrs. Karcher is doing the bare minimum to qualify for a property tax exemption and as a State Senator who has touted her record on ethics, I find this troubling.”
Karcher campaign manager Mike Premo responded that Karcher is so honest that she disclosed the $50 her son made umpiring a baseball game.
“Since the Assemblywoman has no credibility whatsoever, we really don¹t care what questions Jennifer Beck is asking or what she wants to know, and we don¹t think the public cares either,” said Premo. “What the public cares about are facts and Jennifer Beck keeps getting hers wrong.
