Republican quits post over phony Baroni letter
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer

Bill Baroni

MONROE - A Monroe Republican Committee member plans to resign from her position over being asked put her name on a letter condemning Democratic state Senate candidate Seema Singh that she felt was overly negative.

The committee member, Racquel Chiarella, said that staffers at Republican challenger Bill Baroni's campaign contacted her on Sept. 11 and instructed her to forward a prewritten letter to various newspapers that she felt attacked Seema Singh in an excessively negative manner. The text of the letter, according to an e-mail sent Chiarella, mentioned a State Ethics Commission investigation of Singh.

"Strangely, Ms. Singh refused to confirm or deny what the accountant of the Ratepayer Advocate's Office said is true or not," the letter read. "It is unfair to expect the voters to trust her to represent us in the Senate when she won't be up-front with us about her record. It's time for us to call on Seema Singh to be honest about being under investigation by the State Ethics Commission. Why is she being investigated by the State Ethics Commission? Why won't she talk about it? We are awaiting her response so we can understand what she is being investigated for."

"I wasn't willing to put my name on that kind of letter," Chiarella said. "I felt it was a crude letter attacking her, and Bill Baroni is about running clean campaigns, and I didn't feel it would be, I don't know - I wouldn't put my name on that kind of letter."

She said that had she been asked to put her name behind a positive letter praising Baroni on relevant policy issues, she would have. However, she felt that the tone of the letter turned it into something she just could not support.

"It's almost like, I hate to say it, dirty politics. I just felt that I didn't want to be a part of his dirty work, and had it been something positive, then that's not a problem. … I'm a committeewoman here in Monroe, but I just felt it wasn't beneficial for anyone to sign that letter, really," Chiarella said.

Calls and e-mails seeking comment from representatives of the Baroni campaign this week were not returned by press time.