No faith in new commissioner

As if Sussex County didn’t have enough empty space already.

The Republican Party has selected Jill Space to complete the unexpired term of Sylvia Petillo to the Board of Commissioners, following the latter’s recent retirement.

At least it wasn’t Bill Hayden, thank God. But more on that later.

Space, the wife of retiring Assemblyman Parker Space, is the Vice Chair of the Sussex County Republican Party. She has never held public office. So frankly, we don’t see what qualifications she has to hold a position on the chief legislative body in the county. But that doesn’t matter to Committee chairman Jerry Scanlan and his band of subversives.

Now, I’d like to be fair and hope Ms. Space will distinguish herself on the Board. But I’m not very hopeful, as she’s just one more part of the cartel that has mismanaged and ignored constituent concerns ever since the GOP took control of county government. I fully expect her to become one more sycophant of the Cult of Trump - which figures, since she was a delegate for Cadet Bone Spurs at the 2016 Republican National Convention. That, combined with her inexperience and marital connections, leave me less than optimistic.

But it could have been worse.

At least Space has a working knowledge of government as the wife of a state legislator. Bill Hayden, on the other hand, would have been an unmitigated disaster of a choice. And, more unfortunately, he could still wind up on the Board as he is running with Space for the two seats--the one vacated by Petillo and Anthony Fasano’s - that come up for election in November.

Hayden has a well-documented history of spreading lies and hate in his oxymoronally-named blog “Sussex Patriot”, to which he egotistically attaches his picture in the corner of his posts. This blog is a non-stop barrage of anti-government, anti-democracy demagoguery, which is no surprise as he is the president of the Skylands Tea Party, one of the leading purveyors of hate in North Jersey. Paradoxically--as well as hypocritically--this anti-government crusader who tries to bash Governor Murphy every time he opens his mouth still accepts a paycheck from Trenton as an employee of the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

Just recently, in fact, Hayden published another moronic screed saying that Democrats are trying to control children’s lives “from cradle to grave”, somehow comparing the upcoming sex education teaching curriculum in the schools to abortion. I mean, there isn’t a single Fox News talking point this ignoramus won’t use to advance his agenda of hate.

And he and Jill Space will be the Republican nominees for Commissioner, primarily because Hayden and his fellow gangsters threw two previous running mates--Sharia Nick D’Agostino and Concetto Formica--under the bus, or off the ticket, depending on your view. Well, fine, but that means that Ms. Space will have to run on Hayden’s record as well as her own--not that she has much of a record to begin with.

For the moment I’ll keep my fingers crossed about the new commissioner, although I’m not very hopeful. But by November, I hope voters will see that neither one of them deserve a full term.

Michael Schnackenberg

Newton