It is appalling that Mayor Glen Gilmore and the Democratic Party in Hamilton Township find a need to engage in the unconscionable depths of negative campaigning that they have against Republican mayoral candidate John Bencivengo. It degrades the level of political debate and sullies the mayor's standing as a leader of our community. Rather than further diminishing the stature of elected office and feeding the cynicism and distrust of the voters, the mayor should be focusing attention on how he will remedy the missteps his administration has committed.

The mayor should explain to the people of Hamilton why the external auditors issued an adverse opinion on the town's financial statements; what is hidden in the budget for this fiscal year and why, contrary to law, it has not been submitted to the state or even presented to council for scrutiny; why the budget process isn't open and transparent; why he has resisted providing the town's required financial report to council and the newspapers under Open Public Records Act requests; why he has engaged in development arrangements that shortchanged our schools millions of dollars to which they were entitled.

These and other issues pertinent to this year's race for mayor should be addressed and explained. Regrettably, the mayor and his party instead choose to conduct the vilest negative campaign for mayor in the history of our great town.

-- PETER A. INVERSO, Hamilton The writer, a Republican, represents the 14th Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate.