Candidates spar on and off radio

The four candidates for Montgomery County Board of Commissioners verbally brawled during a live radio debate on WNPV-AM yesterday, trading accusations of cronyism, hypocrisy, stupidity and abuse of power.

And it didn't stop there.

Democrat Joe Hoeffel, a former commissioner and congressman, and Republican District Attorney Bruce L. Castor continued part of the argument afterward with a toe-to-toe shouting match in the lobby of the Lansdale radio station.

"You violated judicial process to save your political neck," Hoeffel said, accusing Castor of "bully-boy tactics" in leaking news that an illegal video-poker machine had been seized from the bar of a Democratic county official in a broader investigation Oct. 2.

"Your campaign stinks of hypocrisy," Castor said. He said he never disclosed the identity of the official, adding, "She outed herself" when news of the raids came to light.

This vein-popping exchange was over the case of Jury Commissioner Joan Cisco Olszewski, owner of Cisco's Bar & Grille in Flourtown. She resigned the post yesterday, saying in a statement she had been told she was to be criminally charged in the case as early as today.

That case has become a flash point in the tight race for control of the county courthouse. Hoeffel and his running mate, incumbent Democratic commissioner Ruth S. Damsker, accuse Castor of abusing his office.

"My resignation should not be construed as an admission of guilt," Olszewski said in her statement. "Rather, it is a demonstration of my concern for the dignity of, and respect for, the judicial system in general, and the jury system in particular."

In the debate, the Democrats cited as examples of patronage abuse a county lobbying contract with a Republican leader and a contract for forensic sciences that went to a laboratory company whose executives donated to Castor.

Republican incumbent Commissioner Jim Matthews pointed out that Damsker voted with the GOP board majority on thousands of contracts and personnel decisions until this election year.

"I must've been in a parallel universe because I didn't hear any complaints [then]," Matthews said. "It's just election year babble."