In reporting the status of his ongoing Bristol Township corruption forensic audit, auditor Joseph Barbagallo revealed that the matter is also under FBI investigation.
In their usual “Guess the Party Affiliation” style, the Bucks County Courier-Times reports on the update Barbagallo gave during last night’s township meeting.
During a presentation at Thursday night’s town meeting, auditor Joseph Barbagallo said he had to be careful in what he discussed because of that “criminal investigation.”
He also said the allegations of impropriety were so rampant that the township needed a corruption tip line. The council unanimously approved the request to start a hot line at a cost of $1,200.
The township released Barbagallo’s forensic audit last month. In the report, Barbagallo said he found evidence of bid-rigging, abuse of credit cards, preferential treatment of employees and an intermingling of campaign and taxpayer funds.
Par for the BCCT course, while reading the coverage you need a forensic audit to figure out the Democrat party affiliation of the allegedly corrupt Bristol Township officials. It’s never explicitly stated in the article, and the reference to money being funneled in and out of the “Bristol Democratic Club” is buried deep in the back page of the article.
Not wanting anyone to get the right idea about what party is running Bristol Township and participating in the alleged corruption, the BCCT is quick to explain away the reference to “Democratic” by stating:
The Bristol Democratic Social Club is not associated with the township’s Democratic organization, said its president Janet Keyser. Keyser said the social club was run by Fenton.
Yes, I’m sure the Bristol Democratic Club (Does “Social” belong there or not? It seems to pop up occasionally when convenient.) had plenty of members that were in no way associated with Bristol Township Democrats.
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Bristol Township, Bucks County, Bucks County Courier Times, Calkins Media, Democrat Corruption, Dirty Money Politics, Guess the Party Affiliation, Media Bias3 Responses to “Auditor: Bristol Township Corruption Under FBI Investigation”
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1edit35 on Jul 18, 2008 at 3:03 pm:
Actually, it’s often hard to tell the difference between a Democratic municipal candidate and Republican political candidate, when it comes to issues which differentiate the two main political parties nationally.
Township political races usually center around a cult of personality rather than whether candidate A is for a strong military, or anti-abortion, or has Judeo-Christian values, or is for increased oil exploration, etc. — and candidate B is not.
In my experience, those issues don’t begin to really come into play until perhaps the state Senate level, or even the US Representative level.
That said, the phrase ‘Bristol Township Democrat’ is absolutely redundant. The registration is about 4-1 Dem over Rep, if I’m not mistaken. When a Republican DOES win, it’s because he or she is well-spoken with an affable, outgoing personality … and the Democrat is a geek.
Yes, the better run municipalities almost always have more Republican electives…. and the worst are the ones have liberal Democrats.
Ironically, many of the lower Bucks Democrats are extremely non-liberal, gun toting, anti-minority, not enlightened at all.
Tullytown comes to mind. As does Bristol Borough.
My former in-laws were rabid Democrats, yet you couldn’t sit in their home five minutes without hearing the n-word, or complaints about foreigners, or whatever.
[Reply]
2Steven on Jul 18, 2008 at 3:09 pm:
When the money is being (allegedly) funneled to and through a “Democrat Club,” I think it bears mention somewhere before the back page of the article. In that case, the party affiliation seems relevant. It’s not like they were (allegedly) funneling money to and through the “sort-of Democrat in name only Club”
[Reply]
3edit35 on Jul 18, 2008 at 4:56 pm:
The Bristol township Mayor and his inner circle of Democrat operatives are diametrically opposed to the typical person one imagines when they think of a typical Democrat.
No tree-hugging, civil rights marchin’, elite thoughts or feminism sympathy for THESE guys.
They are about as scrufty, Bud-swilling, pickup truck, anti-reparations, bah ha types whose Democratic allegiance seems to stem solely from the fact their parents were FDR new dealers.
Yes, the Courier should have mentioned how Sam and the boys were funneling money through the Democratic club….
That is asking too much. One of the current CT columnists had a very close relationship, ah hem…, with the BTwp Mayor several years back. She has since backed off, but feelings last a long time, dontcha know.
Ironically, if you recall, the previous Mayor (an insurance salesman) did two years in the slammer for doing almost the exact same thing…. “asking” for contributions from constituents which ended up in Dem party hands.
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