Mayor uses classroom as platform for political jabs
HAMILTON >> It was supposed to be a teachable moment. It turned into nearly 37 minutes of Mayor Kelly Yaede settling scores.
The Republican mayor met with Anthony Tessein’s GALRE class Wednesday at Hamilton High School West. She was there to discuss with students her job as mayor and public safety director, but the seminar quickly turned into a bitter political speech in which she fired regurgitated salvos at Democratic challenger Jeff Martin, primary opponent David Henderson, reputed anti-Yaede councilwoman Ileana Schirmer and the subcommittee that issued a blistering report about the animal shelter.
In the same breath as decrying the “ugliest politics Hamilton Township has ever seen,” she denounced township gadfly Henderson as a “racist, misogynistic, anti-Muslim individual” and alleged police visited Henderson’s home multiple times over the years on domestic violence calls.
She claimed the township gadfly was really a rejected Team Yaede wannabe, citing an alleged remark Henderson made to one of her associates.
“If Yaede doesn’t make me her second-in-command, I’m gonna unleash on her,” the mayor told the students. “I said, ‘Send this note to Mr. Henderson: It’s going to take a bigger man than you to get me out of office.’”
Yaede chided Martin for letting Henderson and his associates “run the council chambers.”
“You gave away Council chambers to a hate group, and you want to give away our town to Robbinsville. While you’re auditioning to be the sixth member of council in Robbinsville, I’m running Hamilton,” she said.
Hamilton Superintendent Scott Rocco released a statement Friday afternoon in response to Trentonian inquiries about whether he was aware of Yaede’s political charged banter during the class speaking engagement.
The GALRE class “has a history of guest speakers running for office or currently holding elected office,” Rocco said. “GALRE is suggested for those students who may be considering a career in politics, law, government services, and other related fields or who may desire the opportunity to get involved in community affairs. As we do with other courses, we review all programs on a continuous and fluid basis to ensure we stay true to the intent of the class.”
Yaede renewed her attacks on the former JAG attorney for representing an airman convicted of sexual assault.
“He was asking for leniency in his sentence. And he said, ‘It was just one night.’ Just one night. That victim said she’s numb now. Just one night? No, no, no. No. That has to stop,” the mayor said.
Martin, apprised of the mayor’s repeated attacks on him and others on the recording, said he found it “unfortunate the mayor would go into a classroom” and use her time to get even or try to one-up political rivals while addressing “the future leaders of Hamilton, students who have specifically signed up to learn about government and law and policy. And instead of hearing a speech about the future of Hamilton, they had to listen to someone spout untruths and attacks against her political opponents, both perceived and
real. I certainly do find it ironic the only person complaining about how low the political discourse has become is the person who seems to be doing all the attacking.”
Proudly touting her Bromley section roots and the gold and blue on her lawn signs (the school colors for the Nottingham grad), Yaede spent part of her time telling students about her political rise, first as a Board of Education member, then a councilwoman and finally as the township’s first female mayor.
“I’m going to give you three statements, and I want you to guess and tell me who said this to me. ‘Hamilton will never elect a woman.’ ‘You’re too young,” and, ‘You need to tone down the pretty.’ Who can tell me who said that? Just take a guess?” the mayor asked students.
One student blurted out, “Henderson.”
“Oh, he says much worse,” the mayor said, enlightening students on the answer. “Elected officials. Yep. Who would have thought, right, that that would be said? So I said that made me work harder. I said, ‘If you’re going to get in my way, I’m either going to go above you, under you, or around you, but you will not stop me.”
The mayor proceeded to do that, cutting her foes down to size.
She took more shots at Martin for being a relative newbie to the township.
“If you can’t run council chambers, you can’t run Hamilton,” she said. “And if you need a GPS to get to Hamilton West, you shouldn’t be the mayor. If you can’t tell me the difference between the Bromley section from White Horse to White City, you shouldn’t be the mayor. You should know all that.”
At some point after going off about her haters and her love of Hamilton, Yaeded opened the floor up for questions saying nothing was “off-limits.”
It was a surprising open forum invitation that she has not afforded The Trentonian, quickly ending a previous unsolicited interview when a reporter attempted to ask her why she and her campaign manager Dan Scharfenberger misled the public and press about running the Hamilton Spotlight blog that published Henderson’s expunged criminal records.
In one of the most revealing moments in the halfhour open mic with the mayor, a student asked her of her plans if loses the November general election.
Yaede said she could “technically retire,” but would likely launch her own “public relations” firm.
Aside from dealing with her own disorderly persons charge in Expungegate, later dismissed, Yaede has been in the middle of a public relations nightmare in the lead-up to the election. And she hasn’t always handled it well. Trentonian columnist Jeff Edelstein opined Yaede at times has appeared to “step on rakes scattered about the lawn.”
The so-called rakes included animal cruelty charges being leveled against two members of her inner circle, health officer Jeff Plunkett and former animal shelter supervisor Todd Bencivengo, over the ongoing struggles of the animal shelter.
When Yaede was asked about the “scandal” around the animal shelter, she went into a bizarre rant about how Martin has cut a “deal” to “give away the animal shelter” to an outside group for an endorsement.
Then she seemed to take shots at councilman Rick Tighe and the animal shelter subcommittee.
“One of the council member’s parents called us and asked us to put his dog down,” Yaede said. “They launch an investigation because we weren’t holding dogs for the seven days. How many of you think if a dog needs to be put down, euthanized, end of life, sick, should be kept in that condition for seven days?”
One student said that wasn’t “right.”
Yaede seemed to agree the state law that requires holding shelter animals for seven days was inhumane because it doesn’t allow for sick animals to be immediately euthanized.
“It’s inhumane. But state law supposedly says that we have to,” she said. “So you’ll see the charges for people not keeping seven days. The city of Trenton does it, still doesn’t keep dogs for seven days. Gloucester, Bergen. There are shelters right now, never charged, because Governor Murphy wants this town . ... Jeff Martin was picked by Murphy to come here and run for office. Okay. So now we have two individuals. Okay. They hold this charade of a committee to investigate on council.”
The mayor suggested the subcommittee targeted the animal shelter’s problems because of the success of her “Dog of the Day” videos. The mayor treats canines at the shelter to a day on the township.
“They go after everything I’ve been near and dear to,” she said.
When a student asked the mayor if she has her eyes on a higher officer, she seemed to rule it out saying she loved the township too much.
“I get asked that all the time because I take on Gov. Murphy,” Yaede said. “Everybody thinks I should run. He’s the worst governor we will ever see in our history. But I love it. I love it here. And when you’re on the front lines, you can make, you know, such a huge difference, because in Hamilton.”
The mayor was asked how long she planned to stay in office. She said she wouldn’t step down until she feels like she “can’t be effective or make changes or run out of new ideas. I’ll leave once I stop bettering things.”