Rampant political corruption in New Jersey is a hidden tax that each year takes a $1 billion dollars out of the wallets of New Jersey taxpayers, according to a Rutgers study produced by the Prudential Business Ethics Center.

So another 11 New Jersey Democrats have been arrested for corruption - this time for demanding and taking cash bribes in exchange for official favors and help in awarding government contracts. Here’s the latest crew, not unsurprisingly all representing Abbott School Districts.

From Passaic County: Samuel Rivera, the mayor of Passaic; Assemblyman Rev. Alfred E. Steele, who is also a Passaic County undersheriff; Passaic councilman, Marcellus Jackson and former Passaic councilman Jonathon Soto.

From Essex County: Assemblyman Mims Hackett, Jr., who is also the mayor of Orange and Keith Reid, the chief of staff to Newark City Council President Mildred Crump.

From Atlantic County: Pleasantville councilman Pete Callaway, Pleasantville Board of Education President James Pressley and three members of the Pleasantville Board of Education - Jayson Adams, Rafeal Velez and James McCormick.

We are locked in a Groundhog Day loop in this state. Here’s what we wrote more than two years ago. We could publish the same post every other week and appear current with the latest news cycle.

When are people going to wake up and realize politicians and other “public servants” have been using the excuse of helping the least amongst us as an excuse to enrich themselves and their friends? The Poor, the children! Baloney!

There is so much money being spent by government that it’s nearly impossible to stay ahead of the brazen squandering of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Everyday there is a new outrage uncovered. Fraud, bribes, theft, pay-to-play, financial mismanagement and the list goes on-and-on. How bad do things need to be before it dawns on voters that they are being taken for suckers?

As we mentioned in our last post, apparently the situation in New Jersey has not reached critical mass, if you believe reports in the Star-Leger – “GOP faces a daunting task in legislative races”. How can this be given the state’s financial condition, the Democrat’s culture and record of corruption and the crushing tax burden taxpayers in New Jersey must bear?

Last year, Assemblyman Michael Carroll provided the explanation – the majority of people voting for the profligate spenders and corrupt politicians aren’t the folks picking up the tab.

Most serious political corruption tends to be an urban problem. And a Democrat problem. Not because Republicans are inherently more virtuous, but because they tend to approach government from a different perspective than do Democrats. Dems see government as an engine for legally stealing from A to benefit B. Republicans, contrariwise, see government as a bulwark to prevent B from stealing from A.

First, victims of theft tend to object, but if the thief is playing Robin Hood, he creates a substantial constituency for theft. If the beneficiaries of the theft are the residents of a particular district, while the victims live somewhere else, Robin will repeatedly win office in a landslide, even if he’s not exactly pure of heart, and takes a cut for himself and his band of merry marauders.

Why any taxpayer in New Jersey will vote for a Democrat this fall is beyond us. Tax receivers we can unfortunately understand, but a taxpayer has to be nuts to vote for a candidate whose Party thrives on wasting and stealing their money.

We see not much has changed during our hiatus. Corzine and Katz are still making news. Now with a Rocco Riccio twist:

Gov. Jon Corzine gave $15,000 this year to the brother-in-law of his former girlfriend, Carla Katz, a gift that appears to contradict the governor's claims that he ended all financial entanglements with the union leader and her family before taking office.

At first, the governor denied giving Riccio $15,000."Not from me," Corzine said. Shown copies of the checks and money orders (who uses money orders when they have a checking account?) Corzine suddenly remembered:

Corzine acknowledged it was drawn from his own accounts. "That's mine," he said. He said the money was a gift without strings, that he never promised Riccio anything and expected nothing in return.

Technically speaking silence is nothing - jobs, that's something. Maybe Corzine will remember about the strings after the next Katz saga revelation.

Rocco Riccio, who is married to Katz's sister, received the money after the governor forced him in January to quit a Turnpike Authority job. At the time, reporters had been pressing Corzine's office for answers about Riccio's work record and how he got hired.

Riccio's fortunes suddenly changed last fall. He became the target of rumors that he had been improperly accessing taxpayer records -- to find information about political enemies --while working as an analyst in the Human Services Department.

After Riccio left Treasury, the governor's office recommended him for a $75,000-a-year accounting manager position at the Turnpike Authority.

Two weeks into that job, Riccio said he was summoned back to the Statehouse. This time, he said, two others joined Shea: the governor's chief counsel, Ken Zimmerman, and deputy counsel Matthew Boxer.

The trio told Riccio the media inquires hadn't stopped and that his government career "was over," he recalled. Riccio said he wanted to fight for his reputation, but that Shea talked him out of it. "That's when Tom promised me a job in the private sector and (said) they'll take care of me."

Riccio said that he was promised a job and that when no job materialized they offered him money to "tide me over".

And just when you think some are beginning to see the light about public corruption in New Jersey, it’s back to robo voting. From TrentonRising:

I can not understand why a man as wealthy and powerful as Jon Corzine would need to make regular installments to this woman or members of her family.

And if her brother-in-law lives with Katz's sister and mother, and he is struggling financially, wouldn't that mean that her sister and mother would be hurting. Why would Katz not do what any other sibling or child do when a family member is in need? This whole debacle does not make sense.

I voted for him and will vote for him again. But, he needs to stand up and get this behind him and the state.

Enlightened blogger Dino P Crocetti responds to TrentonRisisng’s first question:

At this point, you can only wonder what he is being blackmailed with. Perhaps it's a video tape of some sort.

The answer to the second question is a matter of public record. Katz is selfish and greedy. She’s big on spending other people’s money, just not her own - even when the “working family” in need is hers.

As for blindly voting for Democrats, nothing has changed on that score either. The Star-ledger reports that the “GOP faces a daunting task in legislative races”.

"There's no big demand for a change. Things may not be great, but they are okay as far as most people are concerned right now."

That’s right, things could always be worse and we suspect they will be right after this fall’s election.

NJ Exporting Welfare Recipients and Crime?

Altoona Mayor Wayne Hippo is looking into filing a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey for allegedly urging welfare recipients to move to Altoona for low-income housing. He's been working with the police to investigate crime in Blair County - including drug rings and shootings - connected to former New Jersey residents who have moved to Altoona, Pa.

Compulsory “Volunteerism”

Should public school students be compelled to provide community service as a requirement for high school graduation? If a pilot program, created by a 2005 state law requiring community service from high school juniors, is deemed successful, New Jersey will become the second state, after Maryland, to make it mandatory for high school graduation.

High Priced Lawyers Hired to Fire Crook

It cost UMDNJ more than $450,000 in lawyer fees to fire former School of Osteopathic Medicine Dean R. Michael Gallagher, who was indicted in March on 13 counts of bribery and fraud. UMDNJ trustee chairman Robert Del Tufo said, “the cost was warranted because the public institution had never before fired a tenured leader”.

AC Dealers Feeling Lucky

Casino dealers at Bally's Atlantic City voted in favor of becoming part of the United Auto Workers union. They must be feeling lucky, considering how well the union deal worked out for American auto workers.

Highway of Death

New Jersey traffic fatalities have begun rising for the first time in a generation while the nation’s highway death rate declined slightly in 2006. Last year, 938 people were killed, including 168 pedestrians in the Garden State.

Federal criminal investigators and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into New Jersey's pension system after a report found the state diverted billions of dollars from it for other purposes, such as state aid to Abbott school districts.

Abbott districts have been spending at some of the highest levels in the State, and well beyond non-Abbott districts, with no discernable correlation to improved achievement.

Of the 25 highest spending K-12 districts, 17 are Abbott districts. Moreover, the three highest spending K-12 districts in the State are Abbott districts.

The Abbott districts have not been required to exercise the fiscal discipline that the State and other school districts must undergo; instead they have been allowed to balance their budget through virtually unlimited supplemental funding requests.

The SEC, which regulates stock and bond markets, will try to determine whether state officials misrepresented the impact of pension-fund maneuvers in documents provided to investors and the U.S. Attorney's Office is looking into any criminal violations. Investigations into the state’s mismanagement of the grossly under-funded pension system could take years.

The shortfall developed since 2001, as the collapse of the stock market drained $22 billion from the funds. Lawmakers compounded the problem by using accounting gimmicks to skip required annual payments into the funds and to cover billions of dollars in additional costs from increased retirement benefits they granted to public employees.

The state of New Jersey’s Division of Law employs 530 attorneys, but apparently none with the expertise to represent the state in these federal civil and criminal investigations. The New Jersey Treasury Department has hired a law firm, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson, to defend the state.

David Wald, spokesman for state Attorney General Stuart Rabner, said he didn't know immediately how much money has been spent on the outside law firm, but said its lawyers will get $495 per hour, with associates paid $180 per hour.

So, let’s review how New Jersey taxpayers got into this mess.

• As the state admitted to the New Jersey Supreme Court, the Abbott school districts have spent billions upon billions of taxpayer money without the slightest bit of fiscal discipline and with no discernable improvement in student achievement.
  
  To help fund the Abbot districts’ virtually unlimited funding requests, the state diverted billions from state pension contributions to satisfy these insatiable demands.
  
  The additional Abbott funding was used to increase pay, benefits and the number of jobs in these school districts, which further exacerbated the state’s pension funding liability.
  
  To curry favor with the state’s public employees, pension benefits were increased in 2001 and were “paid” for with accounting gimmicks, further compounding the state’s pension funding crisis.
  
  Facing federal investigations into the state’s pension funding debacle, taxpayers will foot the tab for outside council to defend the politicians and state employees who got us into this mess. The 530 lawyers on the state’s payroll and in the pension system aren’t up to the job.

Is it any wonder why New Jersey’s broke?

According to a report in the New York Times, Jon Corzine gave Carla Katz a financial settlement that exceeded $6 million.

They have repeatedly declined to disclose the total amount or specific contours of the financial agreement their lawyers negotiated upon their breakup in 2004, but lawyers familiar with the settlement and union officials who conferred with Ms. Katz during the negotiations — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of political retribution — disclosed for the first time that it exceeded $6 million.

That August, when Gov. James E. McGreevey announced his resignation, Mr. Corzine instantly became the favorite to succeed him. The couple was in the midst of breaking up, one former confidante and colleague said, and Ms. Katz threatened to stage a news conference designed to embarrass Mr. Corzine, but soon calmed down.

After several months of detailed discussion by their lawyers, the parties agreed on the financial package in November 2004. It remains unclear what, if anything, Ms. Katz provided in exchange.

He is alternately viewed as afraid of what she might say about him, or simply as a rich and generous man who considered the relationship significant enough to warrant helping her maintain the lifestyle they had shared.

Rich and generous does not require negotiations though lawyers. Afraid of what Katz has on Corzine and buying her silence does. And ask yourself, why is this information coming out now and whose camp is the most likely source of these new revelations? Clearly, there’s no advantage for Corzine’s camp to divulge this information.

Update: Red Generation has more here

Maggie Gallagher - Only In New Jersey, snips below:

I'd say "only in America," but I suspect this is a story that could happen only in New Jersey.

The feds are closing in on indicting your fundraising pals, one of whom even claims you arranged a special code word, "Machiavelli," signaling that they had a deal, the deal being: You pad their pockets with public funds in exchange for their donating campaign cash.

Jihadists have just recently blown up the Twin Towers, orphaning thousands of New Jersey children. The country's at war.

Suddenly it all blows up in big type. The one indisputable fact -- you are the man who let your lust decide who should head up homeland security in New Jersey -- is suddenly on the front page of every newspaper.

What do you do? First, you ask your wife to smile and look supportive at the press conference in which you will announce that (A) you are resigning, and (B) you are a gay American. Then you write a book, naturally, explaining how sorry you are for your mistakes, but homophobia made you do it. Leaders of groups like the Human Rights Campaign and Garden State Equality enthusiastically endorse your narrative.

But what do you do next? If you're Jim McGreevey you do this: You try to stiff your wife out of as much money as you can, naturally. You can live in luxury with a very rich boyfriend, postponing the job of earning the big bucks you might have to give your wife a piece of. You've got to keep the net worth down until the divorce is over, see? So you work a little on the side, teaching "ethics and leadership" (I kid you not) to future MBAs at a public university in New Jersey. This nominal income (about $17,000 a year) will allow you to pad your pension for years at taxpayer expense without driving up the old alimony, see?

What to do with the rest of your time? Above all, do not get a real job to support your child or the wife you used and abandoned. Instead, enter the seminary. The Episcopalians are glad to oblige. Studying four days a week, with $12,000 tuition for the next three years should do it. Bonus points: You call your wife a homophobe because she doesn't want you bringing a 5-year-old girl into bed with you and your new partner or displaying giant photos of naked men in the little girl's presence either.

Like I said: Only in New Jersey. I hope.

Back in March, Bob Ingle discovered Democrats had a state-paid intern going through years of financial-disclosure forms from state legislators. Republicans suspected the effort was an election-year opposition research project being conducted at taxpayer expense. Back then, Democrats claimed the intern was looking for ways to strengthen disclosure.

Yesterday, Democrats exposed the real purpose of the project. Two County Democratic Party Chairmen have filed ethics complaints against seven Republican legislators “as current events on Legislative conflicts gave me cause to review the relevant files and the information contained herein only recently came to light”. In other words, taxpayers paid the research tab for a partisan stunt. Is that ethical or even legal?

Clearly, the Democrats are out for revenge to counter the growing list of Democrats who have been investigated, indicted and convicted for public corruption by the U.S. Attorney’s office, led by Chris Christie. If that was the goal, their little project was a bust.

The complaints, which may be read here, allege the lawmakers “may have advocated for” a number of state grants from 2000 through 2002. “Based on financial disclosure forms” the complaints identify employers and charity affiliations for the legislators and in some instances for their family members. Missing from the complaints are specific conflicts of interest or cases of personal financial gain tied to the state grants.

Not surpassingly, the ethics complaints were filed by two attorneys, Richard J. Perr and Elia A. Pelios, both with their own pipelines into state and local coffers.

Perr is a partner at the law firm Fineman Krekstein & Harris and an adjunct professor Rutgers School of Law - Camden. In his spare time, Perr is also the Burlington County Democratic Party Chairman.

The second complaining attorney, Elia A. Pelios, works for the law firm Ventantonio & Wildenhain, is Commissioner/President of the Somerset County Board of Taxation and President of the New Jersey Association of County Tax Boards. In his spare time, Pelios is also the Somerset County Democratic Party Chairman.

New Jersey’s Attorney General, Stuart Rabner should investigate these two with their tangled financial, political and government connections - that’s if he can spare a few minutes away from his all important Corzine seatbelt case.

Take a few minutes to read the City Journal article, Cory Booker’s Battle for Newark, chronicling Newark’s descent into urban dysfunction and the Mayor’s fight to defeat entrenched crime and political corruption in the state’s largest city.

Blue Jersey’s “hunstu” has written two more blog posts about Chris Christie in a vain attempt to prove the U.S. Attorney’s corruption-busting record is being exaggerated and that he’s involved in some sort of conspiracy to damage Democrats. Posts here and here.

What better way for ‘huntsu” to prove his point than to provide links to sources contradicting his theory?

Such as this link to a September 14, 2006 post by Wally Edge on Politics NJ:

Christie is a Republican who served as a Morris County Freeholder and as a leader of George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign in New Jersey, but accusing the corruption-busting federal prosecutor of playing partisan politics is a tough sell.

Or to provide this link to a January 12, 2006 article in the Westfield Leader:

“After helping to put 86 elected officials in jail during his first term as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie last week vowed to continue his fight against public corruption.”

In his most recent post, “huntsu” has compiled a spreadsheet of so-called "investigations" by Chris Christie’s office since 2002. The list is an odd mix of indictments, convictions and other stuff in the news. It’s also loaded with errors and is useless for any meaningful analysis. Below are just a few random examples of the errors contained in their “investigations list”.

David Chang is listed for giving illegal campaign contributions to former Senator Robert Torricelli and Audrey Yu is listed for a related obstruction of justice charge. The spreadsheet indicates neither has been convicted. Of course both were convicted in 2000. However, the Chang and Yu cases predated Christie’s term as U.S. Attorney.

Former Camden mayor Milton Milan is listed for public corruption, but the list falsely indicates there was no conviction. Milan was convicted of various corruption charges in 2000, again predating Christie’s term as U.S. Attorney.

The Democratic State Committee and Jim McGreevey are both listed for “Machiavelli-gate”, but apparently “huntsu” is counting each line item as a separate “investigation” with no outcome. David D'Amiano, is listed as being convicted for arranging bribes, albeit without noting he was the middleman in Machiavelli-gate.

West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano is listed as taking bribes, but not as convicted - Zambrano pled guilty as charged.

West Long Branch councilman Joseph DeLisa is twice listed for taking bribes. He’s shown as not convicted on page 2 and convicted on page 3. DeLisa pled guilty and was sentenced to15 months in federal prison.

Patsy Townsend, Monmouth County deputy fire marshal is listed for taking bribes, but not listed as convicted. Townsend pled guilty.

We could go on, but there’s little point in spending more time on Blue Jersey’s conspiracy theories, useless “investigations” spreadsheet, faulty analysis and baseless charges against U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

Blue Jersey blogger, “huntsu”, is still on a quest to prove U.S. Attorney, Christ Christie, is a partisan hack. This time he’s taking on The Trentonian's Jeff Edelstein for writing that Christie’s office has charged and convicted 105 people for public corruption.

Sorry, Jeff. But Christie only claims 125 cases including investigations, indictments and convictions as of yesterday, and not the 105 convictions Edelstein claims. If this weren't a column in the Trentonian a retraction would be in order for such a wild exaggeration of fact.

Sorry “huntsu”, but Christie didn’t “claim 125 cases including investigations, indictments and convictions as of yesterday”. A reporter, not Christie, cited a number in the link you provided. There is no mention in the article about the number of public corruption investigations undertaken. Here’s the quote from the linked piece:

Critics have charged that Christie has pursued Democrats to help his party. But his 125 public corruption cases have targeted officials from both parties.

“Hunstu” continues conflating investigations, indictments and convictions. The number of indictments can be determined, but the total number of investigations are not a matter of public record and therefore are unknown. Not every investigation ultimately leads to a person being indicted and of course not everyone indicted will plead guilty or be found guilty at trial. But, so far Christie office has won every case that has reached the courts.

“Huntsu” hasn’t provided the number of people indicted for public corruption, but has arrived at a total of those convicted. We’ll assume his conviction total includes all public corruption cases brought to a conclusion while Christie has been in office. But who knows, “huntsu” hasn’t provided a list. Here’s what he’s come up with:

A review of the NJ US Attorney's Office press releases provides just 59 convictions, 21 of Republicans, 37 of Democrats and one we could not determine a party affiliation for. That leaves another 46 for Edelstein to find. Or retract.

But Edelstein's number was about investigations, so let's see if that proves the point.

Edelstein's number did not include “investigations”, just indictments and convictions as is quite clear from his column.

“Huntsu” also lays this on his readers:

Of the 150 people we found who have been investigated, indicted or convicted only 33 are Republicans and 112 are Democrats. Five are unknown.

We'll do a more in-depth analysis in a later post, but the preliminary review shows that Democrats are 300 percent more likely to be investigated than Republicans, a number far out of whack with the true ratio of party identification or elected officials. Dems are only 175 percent as likely to be convicted.

First. There is no way to know the number of Democrats and the number of Republicans who have been investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s office. The vast majority of investigations only come to light when someone is indicted or the media reports that subpoenas have been issued.

The number of subpoenas issued does not equal the number of criminal investigations underway. Hundreds of subpoenas can be issued in the investigation of just one person’s possible wrongdoing. And one subpoena may be all that’s necessary to prosecute hundreds of people.

Second. Investigations are launched on the basis of information and evidence of possible wrongdoing, not on a party affiliation quota system. The same holds true for indictments.

Third. Public corruption cases include those involving public employees of every stripe, not just elected officials.

Fourth. This is speculation on our part, but we’ll go out on a limb and say the number of public employees who are Democrats far outweighs the number who are Republicans. If we’re correct, it stands to reason a far greater number of people in position to commit corruption offenses are Democrats and therefore, more likely to get caught committing an offense.

Fifth. Certainly there are people who have been indicted, but yet to be found guilty or not guilty. That would be because their case has yet to come before the court. However, every person charged with political corruption, whose case has come before the court, has been convicted. That would be 100% of Republicans and 100% of Democrats.

Blue Jersey blogger “huntsu” has written two new posts about our state’s U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie. From the second most recent:

One of the main themes of our recent coverage of Chris Christie is his largely undeserved reputation for bipartisan investigations. For one, his biggest Republican cases -- Treffinger and Monmouth County -- both predate his taking office.

“Bipartisan investigations”? Undoubtedly, a sizable number of the employees, 127 attorneys and 118 support staff, working for U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, are Democrats. Ralph J. Marra, Jr, is a career professional in the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey. He’s Christie’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney and a Democrat.

Marra has been in charge of political corruption cases since Christie arrived, and he's a lifelong Democrat who says he tells his children to vote a straight Democratic ticket while "skipping the ones who are crooks."

How many political corruption cases involving Democrats and how many involving Republicans has Christie’s office investigated? How many are being investigated now? It wouldn’t surprise us if investigations of Democrats far out numbered Republicans, they don’t call our state Blue Jersey for nothing. But we have no idea what the breakdown might be. “Huntsu” wouldn’t know either, unless he’s working in the U.S. Attorney’s office and keeping score. Investigations are not a matter of public record.

Chris Christie has an excellent reputation for prosecuting crimes regardless of the party affiliation of the perpetrator. That includes political corruption cases, for which there is a public record. The Star-Ledger had this to say on March 11, 2007:

Christie's office has brought about 115 official corruption cases over the past five years. His office, rightly so, has not made an official tally of the party affiliations of those indicted, but, given the numerous Monmouth County officials snagged, Republicans have probably far outnumbered Democrats in the dock.

Has Christie’s office overlooked political corruption on the part of New Jersey Republicans? Has he investigated, indicted, arrested and prosecuted state Democrats without evidence of possible wrong doing? We can’t find any examples and “huntsu” doesn’t provide any. As a matter of public record, Christie hasn’t lost a single political corruption case.

“Huntsu’s” latest Christie post takes on a second Tom Moran column defending Christie:

The factual error is the assertion that Christie has been under attack for "more than five years." Assuming Moran spiked this column on Wednesday for publication Friday, Christie had been in office exactly four years and two months that day.

As with his previous post, “huntsu” continues to have a problem with dates. Christie has been U.S. Attorney for five years, as he was sworn into office on January 17, 2002. Unlike “huntsu”, most people wouldn’t consider crimes committed after that date to “predate his taking office”.

Check out the dates in the Monmouth County “Bid Rig” cases (see below) and not the dates of indictment, but the dates the crimes were allegedly committed. The “predating his taking office” accusation is obviously false.

If Treffinger’s successful indictment on October. 24, 2002, arrest on October 28, 2002 and guilty plea on May 20, 2003 shouldn’t count towards Christie’s political corruption case record, then subtract one from his total.

Anyone who wants to spend the time totaling political corruption indictments during Christie’s tenure, tallying convictions the U.S. Attorney won at trial vs. the pretrial guilty pleas he obtained, it’s all there waiting to be counted. Here’s the link. A bit more work would be required to figure out the party affiliation of the corrupt politicians caught in the act since Christie became been the U.S. Attorney. Perhaps “huntsu” can enlighten us with a list.

Here’s the rundown on the Monmouth County prosecutions by Christie’s office:

Keyport Mayor John J. Merla took $9,000 in cash on Sept. 11, 2003 and between December 2003 and February 2004, accepted another $2,500.

Keyport Councilman Robert L. Hyer took a $5,000 payment on June 18, 2003.

West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano accepted $5,000 in cash on Sept. 30, 2003. On Nov. 18, 2003 he accepted two envelopes of cash - one with $1,500 for him and the other with $1,000 to be given to another unidentified official. On Jan. 29, 2004 he accepted a cash payment of $4,000 and another for $1,500 on Nov. 17, 2004.

West Long Branch Councilman Joseph DeLisa accepted an envelope with $1,500 in cash on Nov. 18, 2003.

Hazlet Mayor Paul Coughlin took $3,000 on May 19, 2004.

Councilman and police commissioner Thomas A. Greenwald collected a $2,500 "fee" for laundering $25,000, on Nov. 5, 2004. On Nov. 11, 2004 he took a money laundering fee of $2,000. He kept a total of $24,500 in "fees" for additional money laundering transactions in 2005 on Jan. 17, Jan. 20 and Feb. 4.

Middletown Committeeman Raymond O'Grady took one payment for $1,000 on Oct. 21, 2004, and another for $5,000 on Feb. 17, 2005.

Assistant supervisor at the Monmouth County Division of Highways, Thomas Broderick, accepted a payment of $5,000 on May 4, 2004.

Deputy Monmouth County fire marshal, and code enforcement and emergency management official in Neptune Township, Patsy Townsend took $1,000 in cash in November 2004.

Deputy Mayor of Neptune, Richard Iadanza, accepted a cash payment of $1,500 on June 25, 2004 and another $1,500 on Nov. 17, 2004.

Asbury Park Councilman John J. Hamilton, Jr. had a paved driveway valued at about $5,000 or $6,000 for installed for free at Hamilton's home in August 2001, in exchange for the promise of steering municipal contracts to the cooperating witness.

Former Monmouth County Freeholder Harry Larrison, Jr., was charged with accepting cash bribes and corrupt payments totaling at least $8,500. Larrison accepted $5,000 in cash in 2001 or 2002 from a Monmouth County official who received the money from a developer on Larrison's behalf. Larrison received another cash payment of $3,500 from a second developer in 2002 or 2003.

Marlboro Township Mayor Matthew Scannapieco, received bribes of approximately $135,000 between 2001 and 2003 in conjunction with three development deals.

Commissioner of the Marlboro Township Municipal Utilities Authority and its chairman from February 2002 through January 2004, admitted that in December 2002, he attempted to bribe a member of the Marlboro Township Council, on behalf of a builder. He admitted that in 2001, he paid bribes totaling $6,200 from another builder to two Marlboro officials. He admitted that in 2001, he offered a $25,000 bribe, on behalf of a builder, to a member of the Manalapan Planning Board. He admitted that in 2004, he extorted $15,000 from a builder.

Superintendent of the Monmouth County Division of Bridges, Anthony Palughi, admitted that during 2004 he accepted payments totaling $12,500 dollars, from a confidential FBI informant and an undercover FBI agent, to reward him for arranging corrupt payments to be made to other Monmouth County officials.

How do you stop political corruption in New Jersey? Throw the crooked politicians in jail? No, you get taxpayers to fund their political campaigns. At least that’s the premise behind the latest “clean election” bill waiting for Governor Jon Corzine’s signature.

New Jersey's plan to give taxpayer cash to candidates in three legislative districts to try to remove special-interest money from campaigns cleared the Legislature on Thursday.

The bill does nothing to stop politicians from giving taxpayer money to special interests in exchange for their votes. It doesn’t stop politicians from lining their own pockets and creating pipelines of taxpayer funds to their family and friends. Those are the real problems bankrupting New Jersey.

It’s also not surprising that the “clean election” bill introduced and passed by majority Democrats excludes funding for primary elections. The primary is the only contested election in many districts considered “safe” for Democrats.

For Schluter and other good-government advocates, such as the New Jersey Public Interest Group, the measure's biggest flaw is its failure to provide public funding in primary elections, where the political machines wield the most power.

Incumbent politicians will be further advantaged due to name recognition and the additional campaign financing restrictions placed on “clean” candidates. A third of New Jersey lawmakers gained their seats through political appointments to fill vacancies, rather than an election. Special interest groups will keep right on spending and working to get their candidates elected – no restrictions will apply to these activities under the "clean election” law.

New Jersey voters may long for clean elections, but 83 percent aren’t interested in paying for political campaigns from the state’s treasury. The tax check-off participation rate for New Jersey’s Gubernatorial Elections Fund is 17%. Public support for this “clean election” program has steadily declined since first enacted in 1977, even though checking the “Yes” box on the state income tax form doesn’t increase a filer’s tax liability or reduce their refund.

The major political corruption stories recently chronicled in the news have had nothing to do with campaign contributions. From Bid Rig to John Lynch, it’s been about money going directly into the pockets of politicians, not into their campaign coffers.

State Senator John Lynch (D-Middlesex) was found guilty in 2006 of political corruption charges - fraud and tax evasion. Lynch admitted that between 1998 and 2002, he regularly demanded and received payments between approximately $120,000 and $200,000 from a South Brunswick company in return for his official action and influence as a New Jersey state senator.

Lynch was New Brunswick mayor from 1979 to 1991, a state senator from 1981 to 2002 and Senate president from 1990 to 1992.

State Senator Wayne Bryant (D-Camden), previously chairman of the budget committee, is currently under criminal investigation for no-work publicly fianced jobs and funneling tax dollars to projects that have enriched him, his family and friends.

Bryant, until recently, had four taxpayer-supported positions. His wife, his son (until his death last year), two brothers and a sister-in-law all were on the public payroll.

State Senator Sharpe James (D-Essex), the poster boy for enriching himself, family and friends at taxpayer expense, is again under criminal investigation for a variety of actions and deals he made as Mayor of Newark. James’ multiple taxpayer-funded jobs and the padding of public payrolls with friends and family are infamous.

A taxpayer financed slush fund, controlled by incumbent politicians, is not our idea of taking money out of politics. It’s just one more way for politicians to take even more money out of taxpayer wallets.

New Jersey legislators have used their elected positions to land multiple government jobs, obtain lucrative no-bid contracts and fatten their state pensions. Taxpayer dollars are lavished on key constituent groups to buy votes, no campaign contributions are required. The last thing New Jersey taxpayers need is to pay for the political campaigns that make this fleecing possible.

Tom Moran’s column today is about New Jersey’s “left-wing noise machine” and the “conspiracy theorists who consider U.S. Attorney Chris Christie a partisan hack” because he’s investigating the possibility Democrats might be involved in political corruption. This is a truly shocking development considering New Jersey’s place in “the unholy trinity of politically corrupt states”.

With every major city and all three branches of state government controlled by Democrats, not to mention the majority of congressional seats, checking up on Democrats holding New Jersey’s purse strings might be a smart move.

Still, the lefty conspiracy theory holds that without political pressure from the Bush administration Christie’s investigations of Senator Bob Menendez and more recently, a boatload of Democrats seated in Trenton wouldn’t be happening. After all, the New Jersey State Attorney hasn’t noticed any problems, just Christie.

But in that case, we would surely have heard from one or two of the career prosecutors in his [Christie's] office by now, at least anonymously. Why would a guy like Ralph Marra, Christie's first assistant and a Democrat, go along with a partisan scam?

Why indeed?

Democrats and lefty bloggers began their attack on Christie long before the Bush administration replaced eight U.S. Attorneys - right about the time Christie’s office started investigating high-profile New Jersey politicians with a “D” next to their name.

One senior Democrat who asked not to be named said a group of "high-end" Democrats met to discuss this recently, and all felt the firings strengthened their case that Christie is using his office to sabotage Democrats.

That view is gaining some ground. The lefty blog BlueJersey.com suggested Christie has kept his job because he is doing the White House's bidding by going after Democrats on corruption charges. And New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote that the firings make the bias charges against Christie "quite plausible.".

Gee, it’s almost sounds like a coordinated attack on Christie from the left. And funny, the New York Times and Blue Jersey bloggers were a bit more skeptical about Bob Menendez when Jon Corzine appointed him as his replacement in the U.S. Senate.

There have been 75 corruption indictments in New Jersey over the last four years. The public has a right to yearn for a break from the past, and Mr. Menendez does not represent a clean slate. – NYT:December 9, 2005

Wasn’t it the Star-Ledger that uncovered the questionable rental deal involving Menendez that led to Christie’s investigation?

Sorry, but Menendez asked for that one. He chose to rent his home to a group that received his help in Washington. Should a federal prosecutor look the other way when faced with such a clear conflict?

Apparently, the answer from the left is yes, if the politician is a “progressive” Democrat.

And didn’t Senator Menendez “reach out” to the U.S. Attorney's Office about the subpoenas Christie served on the non-profit receiving Menendez's “help”? Yes he did. Does that “yes” by Menendez count on Blue Jersey’s list of politicians contacting the U.S. Attorney?

More recently, Democrats have been grumbling about the subpoenas in Trenton aimed at finding criminal abuses in the state's budget process. But, please -- anyone who has watched the way Democrats grab money for pet causes in the final days would agree that it's an excellent place to sniff around for corruption.

Christie has prosecuted more than 115 public corruption cases in New Jersey since becoming U.S. attorney in 2002, and he hasn't lost a single one. That’s the real problem Democrats have with Christie, he’s just too darn good at his job. Can’t stop the corrupt gravy train that’s helping to bankrupt the state - that would be an abuse of political power.

We see the Blue Jersey blog has been supplanted with the new PoliticsNJ.com website. Apparently, the moneyed people have made their move to take over the liberal side of the New Jersey blogosphere.

"Wally Edge," announced that the site had been bought by the Observer Media Group, owner of the weekly New York Observer.

Observer owner and publisher Jared Kushner confirmed Thursday that he'd arranged to buy the site for an undisclosed sum a month earlier.

A new owner, new design, new staff and new bloggers were unveiled Thursday for a Web site that has become a mainstay among those who can't get enough of the Garden State's dramatic and sometimes corrupt politics.

The Kushners, including Jared, have long been mega contributors to the Democratic Party.

You may remember the Kushner family being in the news, especially, Charles Kushner, Jared’s father. Charles Kushner was a major backer and pal of disgraced former senator Bob Torricelli and was known as ex-governor Jim McGreevey’s ‘main man’.

“It was no accident that when Bill Clinton was president, he made several appearances at Kushner functions in Florham Park. And so, especially, had Governor James McGreevey, who, more than any of the others, was a political creature built of his [Kushner’s] will and cash.”

“Kushner Cos. has been Senator Menendez's biggest donor in the past five years.” Charles Kushner even teamed up with Jon Corzine in an attempt to buy the New Jersey Nets basketball team in 2004 - the deal apparently fell apart when the partners couldn’t get the state to help fund the purchase.

Charles Kushner is also the guy who pled guilty to 18 federal crimes that included: making illegal campaign contributions, lying to the Federal Election Commission, tax fraud, hiring a prostitute and using videotapes to try to entrap his brother-in-law to stop him from cooperating with the Feds. He’s out of prison now.

We suppose Blue Jersey will be kept around to organize and raise cash for Democrats. PoliticsNJ is now “the center of gravity for New Jersey [Democrat Party] politics”.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has prosecuted more than 100 public corruption cases in New Jersey since becoming U.S. attorney in 2002, and he hasn't lost a single one.

Christie is handing out subpoenas to find out who benefited [from $378 million in Christmas Tree Grants]. As a result, the rumor mill is abuzz that the FBI wired a legislator, and as many as 15 "public servants" may go down.

The folks at Blue Jersey are becoming concerned and developing conspiracy theories:

Chris Christie may be the most honest US Attorney in history, but he is also a powerful Republican partisan who is beholden to a powerfully partisan Bush White House for his job while others in the same position are losing theirs.

The subpoenas for the legislature came right while the Democrats were making noises about passing major tax reform and corruption reform legislation, blunting the political gain to be made.

We've got a US Attorney, Chris Christie, and he has not been fired.

Eighty-seven others, including Christie, have not been “fired”. But, seven Bush appointees being replaced by seven Bush appointees and its time for congressional Democrats to issue subpoenas. As the Blue Jersey blogger writes:

Ooooh! Congressional subpoenas of the Bush admin on firing US Attorneys. What fun!

U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States. You may recall that when President Bill Clinton took office one of the first things he did was to fire every U.S. Attorney - except one, Michael Chertoff, then U.S Attorney for the District of New Jersey - saved by Senator Bill Bradley. Clinton’s mass firing of 93 U.S. Attorneys was unprecedented, but within the President’s authority.

It’s within Christie’s authority to investigate and prosecute corrupt politicians. Do the folks at Blue Jersey think he should demure so as not to “blunt” Democrat political gains from making election year “tax and corruption reform noises”?

So far Chris Christie’s political indictment to conviction batting average is 1.000. It looks like this hard hitting U.S. Attorney has Democrats rattled and resorting to the old standby - blame the “powerfully partisan” President Bush - this time for corrupt NJ politicians from the Democratic Party.

Just wanted to remind everyone about another contradictory story Bob Menendez has told concerning his rental deal with a federally funded non-profit agency.

1996 Excuse:
“Menendez said he had no hand in arranging the lease, which was handled by a real estate agent and lawyers for the North Hudson Community Action Corp., and did not realize his building would be housing a federally funded agency until after the deal was done.” -- Jersey Journal - 1996

2006 Excuse:
“Menendez said he didn't see any conflict of interest in the rental arrangement because the House ethics committee gave him a verbal green light before the lease agreement was finalized. He also argued that he rented the property at below-market rates.” -- Philadelphia Inquirer - 2006

Below market-rates to all comers? House ethics committee "green light" before, after or never? This is one of the reasons Bob Menendez is under criminal investigation.

2004 – The Year of Corruption

When asked about the many scandals involving New Jersey Democrats, State Sen. Joseph Vitale, a Democrat from Woodbridge, said “voters support Democrats because government works well in their hands.” More here.

Well, you could’ve fooled us – the state is in financial crisis and racked with scandal. Here’s a list of scandals from 2004 and they all involve Democrats.

Star-Ledger List

March 2: The FBI raids the offices of the Democratic State Committee and Middlesex County Freeholder Director David Crabiel, seizing records related to longtime McGreevey fund-raiser David D'Amiano.

March 17: State Athletic Control Board Chairman Gerard Gormley (D) resigns and agrees to pay $14,000 in fines for improperly doling out 227 free boxing passes.

June 22: Politically active builder Joseph Barry admits bribing former Hudson County Executive Robert Janiszewski (D) and others to win government financing for a project on the Hoboken waterfront

June 29: Hudson County Freeholder William Braker( D) admits taking $3,880 in cash and political contributions from Oscar Sandoval, a psychiatrist who wanted county contracts

June 30: Developer and premier McGreevey (D) contributor Charles Kushner agrees to pay $508,900 to settle federal election law violations.

July 6: Carteret businessman and McGreevey (D) fund-raiser David D'Amiano is charged with extorting $40,000 in cash and political donations from a farm owner in return for his promise that McGreevey would help persuade county officials to double their bid for his farmland.

July 8: A federal judge sentences former Asbury Park Mayor Kenneth "Butch" Saunders (D) to 33 months in prison for conspiring to bribe a council member for her vote on the city's billion-dollar redevelopment.

July 14: State Commerce chief William Watley (D) resigns as state investigators seize records as part of a corruption probe into the Commerce and Economic Growth Commission

July 27: Two Wall Street firms downgrade New Jersey's credit rating, rebuking McGreevey's (D) plan to borrow up to $2.7 billion for this year's budget.

Aug. 12: McGreevey (D), with his wife Dina at his side, comes out of the closet and resigns, declaring: "I am a gay American." The revelation comes as Golan Cipel, McGreevey's former lover and former homeland security adviser, threatens to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against the governor.

Aug. 18: Leading McGreeve( D) contributor and real estate developer Charles Kushner pleads guilty to cheating on his taxes, hiding illegal campaign donations and retaliating against his estranged sister, who cooperated in the tax probe, by hiring a prostitute to seduce her husband and sending her a tape of the encounter.

Sept. 15: McGreevey (D) fund- raiser David D'Amiano admits extorting $40,000 in cash and political donations from a Middlesex County farmer and prompting the governor to say "Machiavelli" as part of a political payoff scheme.

Sept.15: Federal judge rules there will be no special election for governor this fall, dismissing claims by two Princeton lawyers that McGreevey's (D) delayed resignation deprived voters of their right to pick his replacement

Sept. 15: The federal government says it will investigate spending at the Newark Housing Authority, where director Harold Lucas (D) bought a plasma television and luxury cars shortly before laying off 99 employees "for reasons of economy and efficiency."

Sept. 22: McGreevey (D) bans some state and county-level political contributors from some large state contracts, saying his resignation had freed him to "confront challenges I have avoided in the past."

Sept. 29: Former Hoboken mayor Anthony Russo (D) admits extorting kickbacks from an accounting firm working for the city, pleading guilty to three counts of mail fraud in federal court.

Nov. 8: McGreevey(D), with no Dina Matos McGreevey at his side this time, bids farewell, saying he's "sorry, so, so sorry," and that his resignation has left him a "changed man."

Dec. 5: The Star-Ledger reveals that McGreevey (D) let favored friends, including television reporter Marvin Scott, use the governor's mansion to host private functions.

Dec. 8: Axelrod (D) pleads guilty to a federal tax fraud count, avoiding prosecution for other dubious deeds connected to the sale of stringed instruments to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Dec. 22: Former Hudson County Freeholder William Braker (D) is sentenced to 41 months in prison for taking kickbacks from a county vendor.