Did State Senate Candidate Lie On His Resume?

By Art Gallagher

Art Haney, the State Senate candidate in the 12th legislative district aligned with Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli’s gubernatorial campaign, indicates that he is a Middlesex County Freeholder in his campaign literature.

Haney was a Freeholder in the 1990’s.

Campaign workers distributed Haney’s cards, along with Ciattarelli propaganda, to Republican voters’ homes in Matawan on Saturday.

The 12th district includes Allentown, Englishtown, Manalapan, Matawan, Millstone, Roosevelt and Upper Freehold in Monmouth County; Old Bridge in Middlesex County; Jackson and Plumsted in Ocean County and the Burlington County towns of Chesterfield, New Hanover, North Hanover, and Wrightstown.

Reached on the phone and asked to explain his bio on the campaign literature, Haney refused to say if he proofed or approved the card before it was printed.  He did say, “Yes. I was a Middlesex County Freeholder. You know that. What is the issue?”

When told that the issue is that his literature appears to imply that he is currently a freeholder and that this could be interpreted that he is trying to deceive 12th district voters, Haney said, “If that is your interpretation, that is not the intent and you know that.  You know who I am.”   Haney said he would look into the matter and get back to me.  I’m waiting.

Haney’s campaign manager, Josh Foote, did not return my call asking for an explanation.  Foote is also the Executive Director of the Burlington County Republican Party.

Haney said that I know who he is, but I really don’t. I met him twice and I’ve heard him speak publicly twice. Haney seems hinky to me.

In his speech before the Middlesex County Republican Convention last year when he lost his bid to become County Chairman, Haney said he was a CEO in the private sector before he becoming the full time Executive Director of the Old Bridge Municipal Utilities Authority.   I have not been been able to find any record of a company where Haney was the CEO.  At a candidates forum sponsor by the Middlesex County Young Republicans and the East Brunswick GOP on April 26, Haney told me that the ran a company that made plastic components from steel molds.  He did not name the company that he said he did not own.

Middlesex Republican County Chairwoman Lucille Panos defeated Haney to replace Senator Sam Thompson as Chairman last June.  Now Haney wants to replace Thompson in the Senate.

Panos is not surprised by Haney’s embellished resume.  “Art Haney has been deceiving people for years,” Panos said. “This is nothing new.”

If Haney is not hinky, he and his team will immediately stop distributing their inaccurate literature and send the campaign workers back to the homes they visited on Saturday to retrieve the deceptive ads.