Wounded last week by unfavorable news coverage highlighting his employment record, Assemblyman Francis Bodine went on the attack today in what his opponent in the District 8 State Senate race characterized as the actions of a desperate man.
"We feel good about it. This indicates they’re in trouble," Burlington County Clerk Phil Haines said in response to an ethics complaint Bodine filed against him in two separate public forums.
At a press conference today, Bodine, a Democrat, presented letters he had written: one to Freeholder Director James Wujick and the other to the District Court Ethics Committee of the state Supreme Court, in which he charged Haines with moonlighting as a real estate attorney while collecting a six-figure salary as county clerk.
"In dealing with the county clerk’s office, members of the public may feel pressured or obligated to retain Mr. Haines’ counsel if they wish to have matters expedited of handled with care," Bodine wrote. "This is the wrong message to send to taxpayers. …I feel that Mr. Haines in representing clients in matters related to municipal law, zoning, planning, land use, real estate and finance matters – has a direct conflict of interest."
In response, Haines called Bodine’s attack "sad."
"I am not with a law firm," said Haines. "I don’t get compensated by a law firm."
The Republican clerk said when he was first elected in 1999, he reviewed an opinion rendered in 1991 by the Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and supported by the state Supreme Court. That decision states that it is not improper for a clerk to conduct a private law practice. As an 18-year practitioner of law in private practice at the time, Haines said he had 100s of clients when he was first elected clerk.
"I phased out my private practice to the point where I have one source of income now and in 2006," Haines said. "In 2005, I made $1,300 from the law."
Democrats point to Haines’ membership in the Wells, Singer an Musulin, P.A. Law Firm, which on its website as late as 2004 advertised the Republican senate candidate’s public job as a clerk. Bodine said Haines still works for the firm, which Haines vigorously denied.
"Phil Haines is serving two masters: the taxpayers and his clients," said Democratic Party spokesman Jeff Meyer. "He can’t represent taxpayers and private clients who have business with his agency."
Haines said Bodine still hasn’t adequately detailed his work for the South Jersey Port Corporation between 1989 and 1992, for which he collected $230,000 and use of a private car. The Republican said the spinning Democratic Party attacks against his record through the mouthpiece of Bodine – as recently as this year a member of the GOP- indicate the presence of the Camden County Democratic Party machine trying to buy its way into Burlington.
Republicans say the network TV buys by the Democrats in the 1st, 2nd and 8th districts show the George Norcross power base trying to flex its muscles, and "That should put Burlington County residents on guard," said Haines.
Democrats take recent election victories in the county as evidence that the GOP machine in Burlington is old and complacent and ready to crumble, while Haines counters that the man they've picked to challenge him is an ethically-challenged discarded party member and hardly reformer material.
