You would think that Lenny would of learned after his campaign last year that personal attacks take away from anything he is trying to say. As a voter in Distric 4 I think its embarrassing to have him representing us.

How is this Lenny kid a Freeholder? He is a three time loser in West Caldwell and then is hand picked by Joe D and the gang to represent us. You wonder why our taxes keep going up!
What a disgrace! He should resign and drop out of the race.

I'd like to see A VIDEO, if one was taken, of the debate. Is it possible to view one online anywhere? I record all those kinds of events-when I can, so I can watch them later. It makes for an interesting comparison with the news stories.

I DON'T think that one can equate having a contract with the county that came in as the lowest bid with bribery, if in fact that is really what Luciano said. Without a video, or at least an audio recording, its hard to say what he said, because different people will often have their interpretation of an event.

As someone whose words have been misinterpreted from time to time I know how divorced from reality accounts after the fact sometimes can be. (Maybe one of the two speakers or someone who was there can share an audio recording with us?)
-On the other hand, a vendor-large customer relationship is NOT by any means a disinterested one. In this economy, where business is not as abundant as it once was, its clearly somewhere in the middle. That said, I would be inclined to give both of them slack on what is in essence a peripheral issue and focus on both candidates track records in the jobs they have done and their stated positions on important county issues like maintenance and getting value for the taxpayers Green Acres funds. I eat out very rarely, so restaurants - well.
-I'd like to see he remaining portion of Overbrook turned into a park and a moratorium on further real estate development on First and Second Mountains. For good.

I was at last nights debate at Verona HS Cafeteria. There were two digital video camera's going through the whole debate. Len Luciano was holding his own through the whole debate he had a few calendar dates wrong but nothing extravagant. Joe Chiusolo was also holding his own but explaining and breaking down spending, revenue and costs throughout the debate, it clearly showed he was a small businessman and Len being a doctoral student book smart. Len at the end of the debate as listed above in the article did ask for a rule change at the end before he gave his three minute closing speech. This is when he made the comment about being on the take which was obviously uncalled for and way out of line. The moderator and crowd did make this again an obvious violation of the rules. I hope Mr Luciano has a nice personal liability policy if not Mr. Chiusolo's attorney will be more then paying his quarterly business expenses with the clear and uncalled for comment.

Mr. Luciano, you are a disgrace. The only reason you are on the Board is because your equally disgraceful buddy Joe Di appointed you to replace the possibly more disgraceful Linda Cavanaugh. You birds of a feather are all politics and are doing a disservice to the taxpayers. How dare you attempt to trivialize that 'just 9%' of our taxes that go to the county (which is a much higher % in some towns, especially those you represent). That is a huge amount of money that Essex County loves to overspend under your direction. I am a registered dem. but will not vote for any dem. associated with Joe Di.....and as I have to add every time I post, we are sick and tired of (paying for and) seeing Joe Di's picture plastered everywhere. Time for a regime change!

I was at the debate last night as well. It's unfortunate the dialogue ended the way it did. No one in essex county wanted that to happen. But the truth of the matter is that chiusolo and his camp have been picking a fight with Len Luciano for sometime now. I believe both chiusolo and luciano are very qualified for the job. I want my district 4 freeholder to take into account the whole essex county and not their particular town that they live in. With chiusolo, all I hear is Cedar Grove..with Luciano he always stresses Essex County as a whole. Isn't that what we want in a freeholder? Len is young but extremely ambitious. Chiusolo makes a great cedar grove town councilman. Len Luciano makes an even better Essex County Freeholder.

[Full disclosure: I am Chiusolo's Campaign Treasurer]

Reply-to Don: I was at the debate last night. While I don't have a photographic memory (or whatever the aural equivalent is), the Patch reporter's quote sounds so close to what I recall hearing, that I imagine he took the quote from a recording of his own.

Reply-to Ed: Essex County has a 9-member Freeholder Board. Of those nine, four are At-Large. It is the responsibility of those At-Large members to represent the entire County. On the contrary, the specific intent of setting up the Board with a mix of At-Large and District-based Freeholders is to ensure that the residents of EACH District have at least some voice at the table. District-based Freeholders are there to represent the interests of the individual districts they alone represent. Without the District-based members, we would have a situation wherein the concentrated population of Newark would control the entire County.
Also, I heard Joe mention Cedar Grove in relation to his personal experience as a Resident and Elected Official there, but I also heard him mention the other towns in the district including West Orange, Livingston and both Caldwell and West Caldwell numerous times (including the fact that he has walked to over 3,500 homes in those towns).
On the other hand, I agree with you, and do recall hearing Mr. Luciano talk about the county as a whole; but don't recall hearing so much about the entire District he purports to represent.

Has Luciano resigned yet? Or at least dropped out of the race?

I have a question for who was ever at the debate. First I was attending and I thought Luciano won the debate by a landslide, I thought his closing remarks were uncalled for. I thought to myself, the guy just won hands down a debate he was apparently ducking, and then he slanders Chiusolo's image. So as I have been reading up on the "debate" I realized what Mr. Luciano actually meant to say, Chiusolo continued to state his case AGAINST bidding and funding (something to that extent) and Luciano merely pointed out, hey you have been a well funded recipient yourself over the last few years and now your stating you want to cut the funding you have been so graciously receiving? Why did Chiusolo over react? Luciano never called him a crook or a thief or even mention corruption, Mr. Chiusolo must have a guilty conscience … HMMMMM... Good point Mr. Luciano you win this round. I look forward to seeing you both continue to fight for the seat, you both have time to win me over and I look forward to the upcoming weeks.

Brian, I agree, that was a bad choice of words. But we all have to keep in mind that a lot of people are angry about what they see as an unresponsive government, on local, state and national level. So its not so important compared to other things. Its a shame is not online. I wish I had some way of seeing these events for myself when I don't know about them until after the fact, or forget.

Okay, also it strikes me as ridiculous to try to say candidate x or y "won" debates. Debates aren't a binary thing, and neither are issues. To me, debates are FAR too short, far too brief, and only offer a fleeting chance, if that, to nail often very slippery candidates down on their positions on issues. It bothers me when candidates do anything other than do their best to answer questions. We need a LOT more debates, to put it mildly, and a LOT less paid political ads, in fact, I think money in politics should be banned.
When people have a chance to review debates and candidates stands on the issues online or in person, the electorate is better informed in November. "Winning" debates is for debating teams, in formal debates. Certainly vocal statements to the effect that x or y "won" tells us nothing about what the candidates discussed or even who was most pursuasive on the issues. It encourages groupthink style superficial thinking. It also discourages people from seeking out a video or a recording and making their own decision instead of letting someone else make it for them.

@Scott In the Patch article at the top and my first response above. The Len Luciano request for a change of rules just prior to giving his three minute closing remarks is INTENT and SETUP for Len's out of line remark. The remark was one thing but a clear lane of traffic with a last minute rule change is what put it over the top for me and will make Mr. Chiusolo's attorney very happy to be in the black financially soon.

@ Martin, no need to guess what side your on! Are you his Lawyer??
I agree with you Don I would like to see these gentlemen get back to discussing the issues. Brian, Agreed it is a not the appropriate words that should have been spoken, but again if you listen to the entre debate you can clearly understand what Mr. Luciano was trying to point out, the fact that Mr. Chiusolo had taken funds from a bid he won and stated he wanted to oppose those same funds if elected, catch 22. Mr. Luciano was trying to point that out and I am glad he did, I would like to ask Mr. Chiusolo why he would vote against something he was a part of, just like I would like to ask Mr. Luciano about his choice of words. I am certain we are all intelligent enough to see

* got cut off last comment*
see this clearly. I do believe that fair is fair and that Mr. Chiusolo has every right to put in a bid, if I had a business I could submit a bid to win additional capital for my business I absolutely would, there is nothing wrong with that. On with the Debate!

@Scott Well since Len Luciano backed out of the West Orange debate. I guess we just will not see any more exchanges. Sad isn't it...

Resign and drop out of the race Freeholder Luciano. We want honesty from our public officials not libelous statements.

Have to agree with John Lenny has proven he is not the type of person that should be representing us.

Folks, please read this:

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/appel/report-sequioa-avc-advantage