TRENTON – Further evidence that the closer election day nears, the more intense the campaign rhetoric becomes.
There is a mailer making the rounds in LD15 that slams Democratic Sen. Shirley Turner by linking her to the capital city’s most high-profile criminal defendant, AKA Mayor Tony Mack.
Underneath his photo and a headline about his corruption indictment, the mailer proclaims: “Tony Mack was career politician Shirley Turner’s choice to lead Trenton.”
The mailer, paid for by “Choice for Change, an Account of the N.J. Republican State Committee,” goes on to attack Turner’s record on education, crime and jobs.
Nowhere does the flier mention the name of her GOP challenger.
Turner said that the mailer is a sign of desperation from her opponents. She said that voters “know that I did not support Tony Mack and have called for Mack to step aside.’’
Turner introduced a proposed constitutional amendment, SCR129, that would require indicted elected officials to relinquish their post temporarily until they are tried and found either innocent or guilty. If found guilty, then a vacancy would be declared in the post.
That measure has not been through the legislative process yet.
But the GOP struck back, as spokesman Chris Russell cited a 2010 PolitickerNJ article in which Turner is named as a Mack supporter.
“The only one who is desperate here is Senator Turner; desperate to try and run from her 2010 endorsement of Tony Mack to be Mayor of Trenton,” Russell said.
“Instead of trying to deny the facts, perhaps it’s time that Senator Turner took some responsibility for her failed leadership over the past 20 years and its consequences for the people of Trenton and the surrounding communities.”
