Robert J. Kerns, the new chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Committee, is accusing Democrats of bringing "Philadelphia-style pay-to-play" to Montgomery County government, according to reporter Margaret Gibbons.

"The Democrats have put a 'For Sale' sign on our county courthouse," Kerns says. "It's reprehensible."

Montgomery County voters elected what they believed was a Republican majority last November, but Jim Matthews turned his back on the voters and made a deal with Democrat Joe Hoeffel to share power on the three-member commissioners' board.

That left Republican Bruce Castor out of the loop and turned Hoeffel loose to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to hire political pals and award contracts to politically-connected firms.

"(Montgomery County Commissioner) Joe Hoeffel and his Democratic cronies have put their integrity up for sale to the highest bidder," Kerns is quoted as saying in Gibbons' article.

Read "Kerns claims pay-to-play" in today's edition of The Times Herald of Norristown.