Burlington GOP has its day in court

The recently victorious Burlington County Republican Party put its deep divisions on display in Superior Court yesterday, with party leaders squabbling over financial records, access to a Mount Holly office and a leadership vote.

It even got personal. During the hearing, one party faction accused the other of breaking into the GOP headquarters and stealing a laptop computer and party documents. The other side said there was an attempt to blackmail the acting chairwoman by threatening to spread rumors that she was having an extramarital affair.

The two sides were in court because the county party's acting chairwoman, Dawn Lacy, filed a complaint against former party chairman Glenn Paulsen and others. The lawsuit was aimed at, among other things, stopping a meeting set for Saturday to elect Lacy's replacement.

The political war has been brewing for weeks and erupted right after the election, when Lacy fired Paulsen as the party's solicitor and also fired executive director Chris Russell and campaign chairman Bill Layton.

According to Paulsen and Layton's attorney, Anthony Drollas, Lacy went to the headquarters on election night and took a computer, party documents and photos. Layton said she also took personal effects including football tickets.

Lacy could not be reached for comment last night.

Her attorney, Jerald Cureton, said Lacy fired Paulsen's firm because he had too much control in the party.

Paulsen also is a part-owner of the party headquarters, but he said last night that he and his partners have never made a profit on it, charging only for operational costs such as taxes and utilities.

Lacy recently has been unable to get access to the office because the locks were changed; she sued for the keys.

Yesterday, Judge John A. Sweeney said the Saturday meeting could be held but a leadership vote wouldn't count because it wasn't called by Lacy.

The judge, however, did not give Lacy permission to go into the party's High Street offices because the party couldn't produce a lease showing it had a legal right to enter.

The judge was hesitant to get involved in a party struggle and turned down arguments that Paulsen had threatened to spread rumors about Lacy as "hearsay. The proofs are insufficient. You might as well ask me to stop political infighting, which I'm disinclined to do."

Layton said he and more than 120 county committee members would go ahead with their Saturday meeting in Mount Laurel and elect a new chairman.

"She's talking about openness," said Layton. "Is openness denying the request of . . . county committee members to elect a permanent chair? That's not democracy. That's a tin-cup dictatorship."

Cureton said the the GOP wouldn't pay for that meeting, which he estimated would cost $4,000.

Lacy succeeded party chairman Mike Warner, who resigned in July after some Statehouse and county candidates complained that their campaigns weren't well run.

The GOP held onto all of those seats in tough races against a Democratic Party that has been making some inroads in the the predominantly Republican county.

Soon after the general election, Lacy appointed an auditing committee to scour the records, but party treasurer Charles Lambiase denied her access, according to the complaint. Lambiase is a partner with Paulsen in the party headquarters.

Lacy's attorneys, Cureton and Anthony Marchetti, said they would argue to the treasurer that those records should now be turned over to Lacy based on Sweeney's recognition of her as party leader.

The party's money troubles boiled over in the final weeks of the campaign, when State Sen. Diane Allen sent a letter to party leaders charging that Paulsen had taken control of her campaign account, filled with money she had raised for her reelection bid.

She hired an attorney to wrangle the money back, fired the party-picked campaign treasurer and wrote to party insiders that Paulsen was not acting in the party's best interests. But yesterday's complaint shows the problems are deeper than the long-brewing Allen-Paulsen feud.

The party also took out $417,000 in loans in October to finance county and state races. Some were bank loans guaranteed by candidates, party officials, Paulsen and his associates.

Some within the party have pleaded for peace, arguing that the party has to make some very important decisions soon.

It must select a replacement for Freeholder Dawn Marie Addiego, who won an Assembly seat, and come to a consensus on a congressional candidate to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Saxton, (R., N.J.), and hold a fund-raiser to pay back that $417,000 in loans.

Sweeney continued the case until Jan. 3.