corruption – Page 3

Subpoenas by the letter

Interesting post from Wally Edge on Politics NJ today that reminds us that Democrats are not the only ones who know how to use their office to take care of their own:

The Record‘s story this morning on the federal probe of legislators who received some personal benefit from state budget items suggests that only Democrats are being targeted. According to The Record, there are some similarities between State Senator Joseph Coniglio and Assemblyman Brian Stack, both Democrats who have received subpoenas, and two Republican legislators who have not: State Senator Robert Singer and Assemblyman David Wolfe.

Like Coniglio, Singer works for a hospital — he is with the St. Barnabas Health Care System, which runs two facilities in Ocean County — that has received “Christmas Tree” grants. And Wolfe, like Stack, has a wife who works for a non-profit organization that has received funding from the state; Carol Wolfe’s organization, Homes Now, received $500,000 from the state in 1999 to build a women’s shelter in their hometown, Brick. Carol Wolfe founded the group in 1997, but did not receive a salary until 2001.

While the statute of limitations for most non-capital federal offenses is five years but federal prosecutors can look back further in some cases. In the Jack Abramoff corruption case, they went as far back as 1997 to detail offenses he ultimately pled guilty to.

This brings into focus something that the GOP is unwilling to address, i.e., the party’s own complicity in the “Christmas Tree” program. While sites like Red Generation and Enlighten NJ like to use the flow of subpoenas around the state as an indictment of Democrats, the reality is that Republicans have been willing collaborators.

The difference right now between the Democrats and Republicans has far more to do with power than with anything endemic within the New Jersey Democratic soul.

“I don’t think the Christmas tree was planted in 2004,” said Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Englewood.

Most of the subpoenas served on lawmakers and their aides in recent months seek records starting in 2004. That could be for a number of reasons, including the fact that the probe began with a senator who became chairman of the Budget Committee that year. But it also happens to be the year Democrats took full control of the Legislature. That has some wondering whether Republicans would be getting more of the subpoenas if investigators looked back a bit further.

In the context of the U.S. Attorney’s probe and the apparent politicization of the federal Department of Justice, it is a fair question to ask.

That said, the most important thing that can come out of this mess is reformation of the process, an opening up of the budget to ensure that these last-second grants are given the kind of scrutiny they deserve. At least some of the money in question was for legitimate programming, but all of it now is tainted by the actions of a handful of elected officials.

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Politics as usual in the Bush administration

The Baltimore Sun yesterday made plain what so many of us already knew: Republicans have been engaging in a national effort to supress votes in Democratic districts. This should be added to the list of particulars against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales — if he doesn’t resign, then he should be removed from office. This is unacceptable.

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Corruption is not partisan

The call last week by Assembly members Bill Baroni and Alex DeCroce for a special legislative session to develop and approve anti-corruption legislation should be heeded. If not with a special session, then with real, bipartisan ethical reform.

While some are dismissing it as nothing more than politics — and make no mistake, there is a whole lot of politics involved here — the fact is that the corruption they are pointing to exists and it is incumbent upon legislators to rein it in.

Last week, state Sen. Wayne Bryant, a Camden County Democat, became the latest in a long line of high-profile state officials, along with a bevy of lower-level officials (housing officials in Passaic County, zoning officials in Monmouth County), to face indictment. Like former state Sen. President John Lynch — the Middlesex County Democratic power broker who pleaded guilty last year to federal corruption charges — Sen. Bryant is accused of abusing his office. In his case, he’s been accused of trading a no-show job with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in exchange for his steering of grant money to the school.

The problem is greater than Sen. Bryant or former Sen. Lynch — far greater, of course, than any individual politician. It is systemic, a product of a state tradition that allows New Jersey’s elected officials to hold more than one public job, creating a nexus of influence that encourages, in the words of Alfred Doblin, editorial page editor of The Record of Hackesnack, the “regular exchange of ‘Christmas’ presents among legislators, local elected officials and organizations with financial ties to state and local governments.”

Doblin, in a column on Monday, blames the double-dipper — the elected official who holds multiple, interwined public jobs — but also the political status quo, which has done very little to change the system. And this goes for both political parties — Bryant, Lynch, James Treffinger and all the others have been getting away with things for too long.

Wayne Bryant was in the Legislature for a long time. Are voters supposed to believe that no other legislators or their staffs had an inkling of what was going on? That’s as improbable as being told that no one in Trenton knew former Gov. Jim McGreevey was gay. Either the folks in Trenton are dim or we are.

Hence, the call for reforms by the Republicans.

“We are at a critical mass of corruption in New Jersey,” Assemblyman Baroni said last week. And it is difficult to argue. Voters believe that New Jersey politicians are on the take — and too many are.

Are the Republicans manipulating the issue? Of course. Did the Democrats do the same in Congress with the Abramoff scandal, and are they doing the same thing now with the firing of the U.S. attorneys? Yes. But that does not mean that scandals were not real.

Framing the issue as a purely political question obscures that corruption has become a fact of life in New Jersey for both sides and that the Democrats, by virtue of their status as the majority party, have a responsibility to do something aobut it.

The package of bills being pushed by the GOP has some interesting and useful suggestions — an end to double-dipping and pay-to-play reforms — and deserves a hearing.

The governor already has signed legislation sponsored by Assembly Democrat John Adler that imposes tough sanctions on lawmakers who violate ethical standards. But the Democrxatic majority has been slow to enact a real ban on dual-office holding and double-dipping and to create tougher pay-to-play restrictions and clamp down on contractors and developers. They have an opportunity now to fix a broken system — to expand the clean elections program, give the state comptroller some real powers and create a corruption czar in the AG’s office among them.

There are a lot of potential reforms that could alter the climate here. We shouldn’t let politics get in the way.

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Double, double toil and trouble

Today’s column by Alfred P. Doblin, editorial page editor of The Record, pretty much sums up the corruption problem in New Jersey. It’s not just that some politicans may be on the take, but that the system has been structured to allow legislators to amass multiple jobs, creating multiple pensions, expanding their power and influence.

It’s an ugly thing that needs to be fixed.

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Another special session?

Republican Assemblym members Alex DeCroce and Bill Baroni are calling on the governor to call a special session of the state Legislature to force it to enact ethics reform.

According to an Associated Press story, the announcement that state Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) was indicted on charges of federal corruption, fraud and pension padding spurred the call.

Republicans say reforms should include limiting campaign contributions from government contractors, making it illegal for officials to hold more than one elected office, and outlawing pension-boosting by public officials. Other proposed measures include suspending indicted public officials without pay, requiring jail time for convicted public officials, and turning over control of the Legislature’s ethics committee to private citizens.

The demand is obviously as much about politics as it is about reform, but there is no doubt that a problem exists and that much of the reform package makes sense. A special session, however, may not be the right path, given the ineffectiveness of last summer’s tax session.

The reality is that nothing is going to get done with a major citizen push — especially in an election year when the motivations of elected officials are incredibly suspect.

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