COOPER HAS NO ONE TO BLAME BUT HERSELF

In Saturday’s edition of the Press of Atlantic City, Freeholder Alisa Cooper is quoted as taking issue with statements made by Republican Freeholder candidates Tom Ballistreri and Manny Aponte that “it was a part of Cooper’s behavior to throw out unsubstantiated claims and accusations” and “it is politics and politics alone, not truth, which motivate her.”

“If Freeholder Alisa Cooper is offended by being identified as a public official who engages in unsubstantiated and reckless allegations against others, she need only look at her own history for proof,” Ballistreri and Aponte said today.

“It was Cooper who last year attacked county employees by suggesting they were hired and have kept their jobs because of political favoritism or nepotism,” they said, “but offered not a shred of evidence to back up any of her claims despite repeated calls for her to do so.”

“Instead, she continued to engage in deeply personal insults directed toward hardworking county employees and, in fact, is a defendant in a lawsuit for defamation brought by an individual she alleged received his job improperly,” they said.

“When asked for proof of her charges, she initially refused and later said she had the materials in the trunk of her car but couldn’t retrieve them,” Ballistreri and Aponte said. “To this day, Cooper has produced nothing to support her claims.”

The Republicans said their description of her political strategy as one of making baseless allegations against others is accurate to the letter based on her own actions.

“She shouldn’t be offended; she should be embarrassed and apologetic,” they said. “Her attack on county employees was politics at its worst and, whether she likes it or not, it is a part of her overall pattern of behavior.”

“It is now more than a year and a half since Cooper’s assault on county employees and she still has offered nothing to support her claims,” they said. “Presumably her explanation this time is that the material is still in the trunk of her car and she has misplaced the key. She can take offense all she wants, but her record is both clear, embarrassing and offensive.“

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Paid for by Atlantic County Republican Committee.

Michael Goloff, CPA, Treasurer.