Monmouth County Democrat in Hot Water Over Facebook Post

HAZLET, NJ-- The Democratic candidate for Monmouth County Surrogate, Vincent Solomeno, came under fire Tuesday for a Facebook post from 2007, re-posted on the Monmouth County Republican Committee's own Facebook page.

The Republican Committee posted a photo taken of a computer screen, showing a post Solomeno made in a then-private Facebook group.

Solomeno said to a friend in a then-private Facebook group, "i'm in amderstam... phoneless. if you need to get in touch, there's this swedish whore named cindy who usually knows where to find me."

Although private at the time, the group has since been made public, and Solomeno's posting was deleted. Patch asked Monmouth County Republicans how the post was found, but did not receive a response.

Solomeno characterized the post as "a private joke that I shared with my friends when I was twenty-two years old," and told Patch he doesn't even remember making it. He was studying in Amsterdam on a State Department-funded Fulbright Scholarship at the time, conducting research on the roots of radicalization in Muslim and non-Muslim communities in the Netherlands. He said this research was beneficial to him as an Army officer overseas.

"In light of [Democratic Committee] Chairman [Vin] Gopal's outrage over the words being thrown around in the Presidential race, Surrogate candidate Solomeno needs to explain why he feels it appropriate to use a vile term such as 'whore' when referencing a woman," the Republican Committee's Facebook post read in part. "He and Chairman Gopal need to take a long look in the mirror, and apologize to the women of Monmouth County."

The Republican Committee has been campaigning on behalf of Rosemarie Peters, a second term Surrogate. The Surrogate is in charge of administrating the Surrogate court, which handles wills, adoption matters, and guardianships.

Before serving as Surrogate, Peters was a member of the Middletown Township Committee for 18 years. During her time as Middletown mayor, Peters passionately fought the Jersey Central Power & Light power line proposal, which she and others defeated.

"The fact that Mrs. Peters would like to draw attention to a joke shared between college students instead of talking about her record says more than any screenshot could," Solomeno said. "After twenty-eight years in public office, she has failed to protect residents' privacy and to prevent the abuse of our most vulnerable residents."

Vin Gopal provided Patch with a statement, praising local Democratic women being elected, many of whom were the first women to be elected to their position.

When asked about the Republican's claim that Democrats nominated 26 men but only 5 women for local offices, Gopal told Patch, "Yes, we do not run women as sacrificial lambs in races just for the sake of running women. We run women and men in targeted races where we provide strong financial resources."

Image via Christopher, flickr.