Corruption
New Jersey's Division of Criminal Justice is keeping busy.
Posted on 05/10/2003 9:58:07 PM PDT by sackofcatfood
Local government
An honest man in New Jersey?
May 8th 2003 | PATERSON
From The Economist print edition
Not in politics, it seems
WHAT on earth is happening in New Jersey? Last week, Martin Barnes, the former mayor of Paterson, one of the state's largest cities, was sentenced to three years in prison for accepting more than $200,000 in bribes. He was also fined $1,000 for accepting cash, a swimming pool and the favours of a young lady, all provided by thoughtful city contractors.
Once behind bars, Mr Barnes won't lack for political gossip. Milton Milan, who used to be mayor of Camden, another big town, is currently serving a seven-year sentence for a litany of crimes. A former mayor of Irvington, Sara Bost, who has pleaded guilty to witness tampering, may soon join them. Last month, Kenneth Saunders, a former mayor of Asbury Park (of Bruce Springsteen fame), was charged with conspiracy and bribery. A former Newark mayor pleaded guilty to tax evasion last autumn.
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Corruption
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And let's not forget the political boss of one New Jersey county who was recently indicted on 20 counts of extortion, fraud and conspiracy. Or the Hudson County official who was charged with bribery and has bizarrely disappeared into the witness-protection programme. And so on. Some three dozen indictments have been issued to New Jersey politicians in investigations in the past year.
Why has New Jersey suddenly become the Louisiana of the north? It is not a party thing: in New Jersey both the Republicans and Democrats seem equally criminal. The obvious people to blame are the state's much maligned “organised-crime community”: this is the land of Soprano as well as Springsteen. Many of the guilty mayors had ties to the mob.
Locals prefer to point to the fact that their state is unusually fragmented. Most of the power resides not with the governor in Trenton, but with its 21 counties, 566 municipalities and 600 school districts. There are tens of thousands of public officials who have access to large budgets of one sort or another. Many politicians double dip (hold more than one elected office).
However, the most plausible explanation for the sudden burst of convictions is that, until recently, nobody really minded. David Rebovich at the Rider Institute for New Jersey Politics argues that New Jersey voters have generally not been too concerned by political labels; what they have wanted is political pork—and that, they have accepted, meant cutting the odd corner. The impetus for the current arrests has come from an unusually hyperactive federal prosecutor, Christopher Christie, who has already (somewhat worryingly) been nicknamed “Big Boy” by George Bush.
Now there are demands for a bigger overhaul of New Jersey's numerous and dysfunctional municipalities. In theory, the Democratic governor, James McGreevey, is all for wholesale reform. But he has not yet committed to signing a law that would ban “pay for play” (ie, it would prevent campaign donors from winning government contracts).
There are some signs of change in public attitudes. Mr Christie is so popular that people are talking about him as “New Jersey's Giuliani”. One of the state's fastest-growing companies, Commerce Bank, has just stopped making campaign contributions in New Jersey, lest they be misinterpreted. Over three-quarters of New Jerseyans now say they think there is some political corruption in their state. Heaven knows what the other quarter are up to.
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Suddenly? The place has been a cesspool from a governance standpoint for my entire polically aware sentient life, which is now pushing 45 years. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose, except there hasn't even been any veneer of change at all. The odorifous wafts have never had any perfume to scent them; thus they have always stank. I remember when Senator Williams bit the dust, and was told by my dad that 10 years prior that he was bought and sold just like pigs at auction. I think Williams went to jail. In a kinder and gentler time, Toricelli just retired in disgrace. And there you have it.
Some political corruption? :-) LOL....
A very debatable point. :-)
"Among the notables, Leach, that governor from NJ Kean, and that woman governor, Millicent Fenwick, Shays, Boelert, that rich guy from New York with the Corning fortune, Mit Romney, that other govenor whom Helms nixed for ambassador for Mexico, Snowe, Collins, Chaffee fils (although the fils is as dumb as a rock; too much overbreeding I suspect) and well the list goes on and on."
Too much time to pick the list apart, but you know what I've maintained about the honor of RINOs. Too many of them come from the moneyed classes who don't feel the rules apply to them and have a very arrogant and condescending tone towards them (elitist). Most are militantly pro-abortion, as we've argued over, not out of respect for "civil liberties" (sic) but mostly because they don't want "those people" (fill in whatever definition you take that to mean) reproducing. I could write at length how productive and helpful RINOs have been in TN, including our previous Governor and a plethora of state legislators, most of whom are either perverts, crooks, or traitors. I tend to trust 'Rats more than RINOs because at least with the former, you tend to know where they stand.
"I know you don't like it, your a red meat fundamentalist type aren't you?"
I'm a Conservative (or neo-Con, as they term it, since I'm an ex-Socialist) who likes his salads minus lizard. :-)
I lived in Northern New Jersey from 82-89. My feeling is that the voters thought if you didn't even have the apperance of conflict of interest, then you weren't smart enough to represent them!
I know. I had a buddy in Sacramento. His father retired from the N.J. Mob and moved the whole family to the state capitol. I knew the whole family -- but by they they were 'legit' or almost 'legit.' Everybody also knows that Sacramento is the mob retirement center for the West Coast. They come from all over the place, but mainly the NE. If you do not know that, you are missing some of the finer points on the whys and wherefores of California politics.
The mob also runs San Francisco and Los Angeles. Just in case you did not know. Now you do.
I would love to see Schundler win, but New Jersey is way too parasite infested to elect anybody but a Democrat at this point.
Wherever there is a concentration of parasites (cities) and a big government machine in place to confiscate lots and lots of (tax) money, the mob is in charge. Usually, as in New Jersey, the "mob" and "the government" are one and the same.
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