Harry Hurley Late Breaking News

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EDITORIAL

MY POSITION

ATLANTIC CITY DEMOCRATIC

COMMITTEE &

THE PRESENT 24-24

TIE BETWEEN

MAYOR

LORENZO LANGFORD

& COUNCILMAN

MARTY SMALL

By HARRY HURLEY

Editor & Publisher

HarryHurley.com

TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2009

5:30 a.m.

First the good news. The tenor of the meeting was highly professional and orderly. No crime scene tape was required at this important selection meeting. The behavior of all was exemplary according to numerous people that I have spoken with who were in the room last night.

The vote to endorse a candidate for Mayor of Atlantic City in the upcoming June 2, 2009 Primary election ended in a 24-24 tie between Langford and Small. Councilman Dennis Mason and David Tayoun each received 1 vote.

All but 2 members of the Atlantic City Democratic Committee were present and voted.

Of the two who were not present, a man (who is clearly a Langford supporter) was unable to attend because his wife was stricken yesterday by a serious medical issue. The second voting member not present was Warren Massey (a clear Langford supporter), who was attending an Atlantic City Housing Authority meeting, where he sits on the Board as its Chairman.

Massey sent his vote in by proxy, or dare I say Absentee Ballot. It remains unclear whether Massey's vote will ever count. Had Massey attended the Atlantic City Democratic Committee meeting last night, this would all be over and Langford would have won 25 to 24.

As it stands now, it appears that Parlimentary procedure, Roberts Rules of Order permits Democratic Chairman Bob McDevitt the power to break this tie.

I strongly believe that would be a mistake for President McDevitt to do this ... for several reasons.

First, It is clear and McDevitt knows this, that a majority (at least a plurality) of the Atlantic City Democratic Committee supports Langford.

There also remains the issue of Massey's "Absentee Ballot" which I think McDevitt will successfully have kicked out. Maybe the fact that Massey was officially representing the City of Atlantic City in a formal sitting Board Member function, may enable his vote to count. His vote should count, as he was officially serving the City at a regular public meeting.

A third issue that was raised by Mayor Langford last night surrounds whether or not all elected officials in Atlantic City may vote. They did not vote last night. Obviously Langford would vote for himself and Small would do the same. Then, you need to look at whether or not any of the remaining 8 members of City Council already serve on the Democratic Committee.

So, this small (no pun intended) Universe of potential voters would decide who wins the coveted endorsement.

The Democratic State Committee will decide each of the three Langford challenges and I expect him to lose all three points. This will leave McDevitt with the power to single-handily select the Atlantic City endorsed candidate, and, I know he will pick Small over Langford.

You don't beat the Champ this way. This would be worse then a rigged professional boxing judges decision.

My position is that this election obviously remains too close to call ... it ended in an actual tie and I strongly believe that all bonafide votes should count ... and, if it remains a tie ... Mr. McDevitt should order a new election for this important selection.

You're talking about a duly elected Mayor, who presently sits in a tie position for the endorsement, possibly being passed over, which would not be right.

It is my strong belief that when Mr. McDevitt votes (himself) to break the tie ... that he will vote for Marty Small to be the endorsed candidate ... which would go against all the facts we now know to be true and that is that more Atlantic City Democratic Committee voters intended to vote for Langford versus Small.

A result of selecting Small in this manner, would be highly unjust.