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GOP Hypocrite of the Week: James Treffinger

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Listen to the GOPHOTW HERE.

This week our BuzzFlash Hypocrite of the Week is a New Jersey politician who deserves recognition for his miraculous religious conversion while awaiting sentencing for his equally miraculous ability to raise funds.

Let’s hear it for James Treffinger, a two-term Essex County Executive who sought the New Jersey Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2002.

Sadly, a criminal investigation toppled his political aspirations, and now the only position Treffinger will be running for is cell block leader. Recently, a judge sentenced him to 13 months in federal prison for corruption and fraud and ordered him to repay almost $30,000 to Essex County.

Friends, this story stinks. Literally.

According to prosecutors, Treffinger raised campaign funds by extorting money from a sewer repair company that won hundreds of thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts.

Apparently, he also put campaign workers and friends like his barber on the county payroll and conspired to obstruct an FBI investigation into a deal to trade county contracts for campaign contributions.

Treffinger pleaded guilty to most charges, though he denied knowing that campaign donors would be rewarded for their, ahem, donations.

Yeah, right.

Treffinger was also accused of violating the county’s ethics code -- a policy he created when he took office after promising to quash corruption. Like other Republican politicians we know, Treffinger campaigned on one platform and ruled on another.

He obviously made plenty of friends while he was in power. Prior to his sentencing, the judge received scores of letters from supporters who praised his religious awakening and benevolence to the community.

But at least one county employee could barely recognize Treffinger through all the praise.

“The letters excerpted in the newspaper do not describe the man I and others knew," the employee wrote in a letter to the judge.

And what kind of man is that? One who allegedly pressured an employee for sex, reminding her that she had him to thank for the job, and then fired her when she wouldn’t comply. She says he later offered her a job in another department, which she took.

"He ended nearly every private meeting with a demand for oral sex," the accuser alleges.

Treffinger’s attorney said his client, who is married with children, denied the sex-for-keeping-your-job charges.
Treffinger played up his religious awakening at his sentencing, telling the judge, “In the language of my faith, I am a new creation.”

Ah yes, just remember the BuzzFlash slogan: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon!

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

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