A mailer from the campaign of incumbent Republican Mayor Kelly Yaede this week in the ugly Hamilton mayor’s race criticized Democratic candidate Jeff Martin, a former Air Force attorney, for “defending convicted rapists.”

In reply, Martin said he followed orders as any “soldier, sailer, Marine, Coast Guardsmen, or Airmen” would, but he also defended the US Constitution.

He and his allies today doubled down.

The following statement is from Barbara Kim-Hagemann, State Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars:

In three days, the Veterans of Foreign Wars will be celebrating our 120th year of advocating for our military service members, veterans, and their families, in Washington D.C. and State Capitals across the country. Through the years we have remained non-partisan but advocate for and support a pro veteran government. Veteran, military quality of life and national security issues must be a priority of all levels of government.

We strongly condemn a Hamilton N.J. mayoral candidate’s recent campaign flyer attacking an opponent’s honorable military service. Demeaning a military member for following lawful orders is un-American and disgraceful. Every day our brave men and women follow unpleasant orders to protect our nation, the Constitution and our way of life. Service members take an oath to follow every lawful order, no matter how difficult or distasteful, and complete them to the best of their ability. Our service members must know that we fully support their actions and be assured that their obedience to follow those lawful orders will not be used by elected officials against them years later. To do otherwise endangers our national security. It is our hope that the condemnation of this incident will deter future attacks against a veteran’s honorable service.

As veterans, VFW members truly know what words like citizenship and patriotism mean and the obligations that come with them. VFW members understand that these obligations do not just end when our service is complete. There is no group of citizens that has a more vested right to vote than our nation’s veterans. We must continue to play a role as patriotic citizens and be involved in elections. With continued talks about deficit reduction, budgets and cuts in spending programs that affect veterans, military and their families, it is doubly important that we support candidates who understand and support VFW priority goals.

Yaede’s running mate Vincent Capodanno fired back at Martin in a statement, saying ‘when Jeff Martin shows poor judgement, his excuse is that he is just following orders. When Governor Murphy, who is funding his campaign, tells Martin what to do as Mayor, will he just follow orders?”