Frank Spatola Jr, Kim Codispoti & Arvene Kilby Hays

Republican candidates for freeholder, Arvene Kilby Hays and Frank Spatola Jr, and Surrogate candidate Kim Codispoti have launched a web ad that calls out the decades of Democrat leadership for placing Cumberland County first in all the wrong categories.

“Taxes, highest they’ve ever been. Crime, soaring, leaving our families unsafe. Unemployment in Cumberland County is ranked the worst in the state. We deserve better,” says the ad.

The Republicans’ ad is a good counter to the misleading one the Democrats released earlier in the campaign season.

Republicans have run a spirited race, even questioning why Democrats aren’t campaigning with Senator Bob Menendez. Kilby Hays and Spatola Jr hypothesized the reason Democrats don’t want to be seen with Menendez is that it might remind voters of the ethical issues of incumbent freeholders Jim Quinn and Joe Derella.

Quinn was fined $250 to settle a state ethics violation levied against him that said he cast public votes on issues involving companies he did hundreds of dollars of monthly private business with and Derella, in November 2017, had a 22-count complaint filed against him by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

Yeah, being seen with an unethical guy like Menendez might remind voters of the incumbents’ own ethical issues.

The Republican’s ad follows: