Gibbs, Richter fight on Facebook

Republican House candidates in the third congressional district are fighting on Facebook.

Former Burlington County Freeholder Kate Gibbs and former Hill International CEO David Richter moved their bitter feud online Tuesday night, arguing publicly about the costs of public contracts won by Hill.

“Hill International routinely inflated costs and ran way over budget, forcing New Jersey taxpayers to pick up the tab. Their property taxes went up, while Richter laughed all the way to the bank,” Gibbs said in a Facebook post. “Is this really the nominee we think can beat Andy Kim in November?”

The line is one Gibbs’ campaign has regularly adopted over the last few weeks.

They hit Richter over a N.J. Turnpike expansion 2010 contract last month, and attacked him over school expansion 2004 projects in Millstone and Middletown on Tuesday.

Evidently, the Facebook post was the last straw.

“Careful Kate,” Richter said in a comment on Gibbs’ post. “The voters are paying attention and your lies only hurt you, not me.”

Gibbs’ attacks over the school contracts focused on cost increases that forced Middletown officials to push a $9.4 million bond referendum, but Richter said Hill was not responsible for those overruns, which would go to contractors and not a management firm like Hill.

He repeated that defense on Facebook Tuesday.

“There are cost overruns on lots of projects, and those get paid to the contractor, not to the project manager,” he said. “I didn’t benefit from any of those cost overruns.”

Gibbs said those overruns were still Richter’s fault.

“David, there were a lot of cost overruns when people hired Hill. Appreciate you admitting that,” she said. “Your failure to manage the projects properly drove up costs.”

The remainder of the social media spat, which lasted until just before midnight, focused on the turnpike expansion contract.

The former freeholder said former Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the contract because of Hill’s cost. The former CEO said Christie vetoed the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s minutes and not the contract itself.

“You are splitting hairs,” Gibbs said. “He vetoed the minutes because he deemed YOUR prices neither reasonable nor fair.”

With most of the state’s residents locked inside, candidates are turning to scial media to boost their campaigns, but fighting publicly with primary opponents likely does little to improve the GOP’s chances in NJ-2.