Madigan Blasts Yudins' Elections 'Tactics'

Editor’s note: The following statement was released by independent Wyckoff Township Committee candidate Thomas Madigan Friday morning.

“The latest challenge to my township committee candidacy from the chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization, Bob Yudin, is another heavy handed attempt to bully me out of the November election simply to improve the chances of the chairman’s wife Susan Yudin to win election in November.

It is disturbing to me and to the voters in Wyckoff that our town is being subjected to the kind of bare knuckle political tactics most often associated with Hudson County politics.

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My candidacy has already been upheld once and the fact that Mr. Yudin wants to again use the considerable resources of the BCRO to deny me a place on the ballot as an Independent is astonishingly self-serving. A judge has already ruled that “I detect no violation committed by Madigan. The protection sought here (by the Yudins) appears to be, at best, to protect Yudin’s right to an uncontested election.”

As far as I know, no one has a right to an uncontested election. The whole purpose of having elections is to give voters a choice and that’s what my candidacy is about.

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Mr. Yudin has tried to justify his ham handed action by stating in a published letter that the BCRO under his reign has taken similar action in other communities to protect the Republican Party in the primary election.

But in no case that I can find has the BCRO fought to deny a candidate to run as an Independent as I am doing. In one instance (Saddle River) Mr. Yudin used BCRO attorneys to deny candidates who won the endorsement of the local Republican Club and the BCRO’s own drawing for the party line – an action for which there is no justifiable explanation.

Now the Yudins are employing that same attorney hired by the BCRO to deny me my right to run for election and give Wyckoff voters a real choice in November.

Bob and Susan Yudin are not fighting to protect the Republican brand, they are fighting to disenfranchise me and my supporters in hopes of paving the way for his wife’s uncontested election. We should not forget,. however, that Susan Yudin ran last year for township committee and lost decisively, paving the way for the re-election of Democrat to the Township Committee.

I am running because I believe I am a better candidate for township committee and that I can win in November and do more to help Wyckoff. If Mrs. Yudin thinks she has more to offer Wyckoff than I do, she should bring her case to the voters, not the courts.

Mr. Yudin is spending vast amounts of time and party resources to help eliminate competition for his wife, when he should be putting those resources into trying to elect the Bergen County Republican Freeholder slate and getting Republicans elected to the State General Assembly in District 38. His actions are divisive and do not represent the sober actions of a good leader.”