Multiple Staffers from Ed Durr’s Gubernatorial Campaign Say He Mistreated Them
The wild Republican gubernatorial primary continues
The wake of former State Senator Ed Durr withdrawing his bid for the governor’s mansion today has drawn some controversy. Three of his staffers have come forward and have accused the one-hit wonder Durr of mistreating them while they were on the campaign trail. Each staffer provided quotes in a press release sent out tonight.
"The campaign was dysfunctional from the get-go,” said Stan Kershaw, Durr’s Political Director. “We knew he didn’t have money so we were willing to work for free, but what we were greeted with was insane. He had us pay for event tickets and food for him using our personal funds, and never paid us back. Worse, we have reason to believe that Durr may have given the petitions we gathered to the Spadea campaign, and for good reason. Former Senator Durr recently tried to get us to do the same thing using Bethanne McCarthy Patrick’s signatures for Mike Mulligan without Mike’s knowledge because of Durr’s personal hatred of [Salem County Comissioner] Mickey Ostrum. While we were led to believe she had gone and got signatures as a volunteer, the Assemblywoman wisely refused this scheme and made sure we knew what was going on. Ed should be ashamed of himself.”
Kershaw is not the only one on the Durr team to have problems with signatures.
“With 24 hours left on the campaign, Durr was nowhere to be found while we struggled, and ultimately failed to get 2,500 signatures,” said Noah Tighe, a Volunteer Organizer for the campaign. “Then this morning with everybody ready to make the final push to get him on the ballot, Durr said he was quitting the campaign. He's a complete fraud who has abandoned the grassroots."
To make matters worse for Ed The Trucker, his 2023 Campaign Manager, Sean Sepsey, has also expressed his frustrations with Durr.
“Former Sen. Durr reached out to me for help when he couldn’t get across the finish line, and out of a sense of loyalty I provided some volunteers. Sadly this is not the first time I have heard of these types of behaviors on his campaign,” said Sepsey. “This is a betrayal of the hard work of Republican volunteers, and of the conservative values of free and fair elections."
Unfortunately, this is a very sad reality of what many hard-working individuals go through in the campaign world. The good-hearted are taken advantage of, chewed up, and spit out. There are no benefits and hardly any room for growth. Only the good candidates take care of their staff. The bad candidates do not. Anyone who seeks elected office in the future must treat their staffers with the dignity and respect they deserve.
To learn more about my work, please visit my website.
Follow New Jersey Outlook on X.
Very interesting piece, Anthony! It certainly seems like a very sudden and unexpected exit from the race. After what Spadea and his team has said about Senator Durr, I cannot even fathom to think why he’s “endorsing” him.