Camden County GOP Questions Why It Took 11 Days For Arrested Assemblyman To Resign

Was assemblyman’s arrest kept quiet due to upcoming budget vote

CHERRY HILL – After learning of reports that 5th District Assemblyman Arthur Barclay has resigned “effective immediately” Camden County Republican Chairman Rich Ambrosino said, “While Mr. Barclay did the right thing by resigning the situation leaves some unanswered questions.”

Ambrosino asked, “Why did it take 11 days from arrest to resignation?”

“11 days after being arrested on a domestic violence charge does seem like a long time especially considering Mr. Barclay was a prime sponsor of a bill that addresses domestic violence.” Camden County GOP Political Director Tom Crone added, “It’s not like people didn’t know it happened, a Camden activist talked about it in a video on her Facebook page, our campaign consultant knew about it. It’s as if someone was trying to hide this for nearly two weeks.”

“I was shocked to read that a spokesman for the county and the police department said they “were just made aware of the incident” to a reporter yesterday,” Camden County GOP’s political consultant Steve Kush said. “I know for a fact folks associated with Camden County government were asked about the incident all weekend. Plain and simple, that statement does not ring true.”

Chairman Ambrosino said, “The question becomes, if we knew of the incident, if people in Camden knew about the arrest, why did it take 11 days for it to become public.”

Ambrosino asked, “Why was this kept quiet for so long?”

Answering Chairman Ambrosino’s question Kush said, “While we hate to be cynics one has to wonder if there was an attempt to keep this arrest quiet because of what will likely be an extremely close budget vote.”