The Democratic candidate for Ocean County sheriff has admitted submitting to the Asbury Park Press a phony letter to the editor endorsing him in the Nov. 7 general election.

The e-mailed letter was not published, and the candidate, Vincent Greene, said he wrote it out of frustration with the lack of news coverage of the sheriff’s race and himself.

But Greene’s admission didn’t come until after he insisted twice on Friday that someone else had written the letter, and later confirmed to the campaign manager for the county Democrats he did send the letter.

It was not until about 8:30 p.m. Friday that Marta Harrison, county Democratic campaign manager, confirmed that Greene wrote the letter himself and now regretted the decision.

“He did send it in under a rather transparent alias to bring some information to the race,” Harrison said. “In retrospect, he realizes it was not the smartest thing in the world.”

“(Those) were my issues and I wanted to get them out there,” he said of the bogus endorsement letter. “You weren’t giving me any press at all. Now when you think you got a negative story in favor of the Republicans, you’re going to print it.”

Greene, 67, a former Harrison police chief, is challenging Republican Sheriff William Polhemus, 77, who is seeking re-election.