Posted on 09/10/2007 8:42:30 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Two state lawmakers accused of accepting bribes for political favors have officially resigned from the Assembly.
Alfred Steele, D-Passaic, and Mims Hackett, D-Essex, both sent letters Monday to the Assembly’s clerk saying they would formally step down.
Steele, Hackett and nine other public officials -- including Passaic Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Rivera -- were arrested on influence-peddling charges last week following an 18-month FBI corruption sting. All remain free on $200,000 bail.
The government alleges Steele, who is also county undersheriff and a Baptist minister in Paterson, accepted $14,000 in exchange for his promotion of a phony insurance firm set up by the government. Hackett, also the mayor of Orange, accepted $5,000, according to federal complaints.
Steele had already resigned his post as undersheriff in Passaic County. Hackett is apparently staying on as the mayor in Orange. Both men have not made any public comments since their arrests.
Steele sent a two-sentence letter to Assembly Clerk Dana Burley today announcing his immediate resignation. Hackett sent Burley a one-sentence, hand-written letter that indicates his resignation was effective Saturday.
Republicans, meanwhile, are calling today for a special session of the Legislature to address ethics issues in response to the FBI arrests.
Leonard Lance and Alex DeCroce, the respective GOP leaders in the Senate and Assembly, sent a letter to their Democratic counterparts asking for the session to begin next Monday, Sept. 17.
“The public has had enough,” the Republicans wrote in the letter. “Taxpayers are sick and tired of the corruption that has become commonplace in New Jersey government.”
Assemblyman Bill Baroni, R-Mercer, told reporters Monday the session should result in a complete ban on pay-to-play campaign financing and the wheeling of funds between campaigns. It should also deliver a complete ban of dual-office holding, meaning both elected and appointed offices, he said.
Governor Corzine has said he would prefer to tackle ethics reform after the November election, but Baroni said the reforms need to be put in place immediately.
“This is the perfect time to do it,” Baroni said. “It’s a crisis.”
Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, disagreed in a prepared statement, saying laws that apply to the bribery charges the 11 public officials are facing are already on the books.
“It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Codey said in the statement. “The type of response letter sent today only undermines the work of the U.S. Attorney’s Office by placing it completely within the context of partisan political arguments.”
Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts also said a special session is unnecessary.
"We’re absolutely committed to having a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption,” he said in a statement. “The best venue to do this is not through a special session in the heat of a partisan and politically charged campaign season.”
The Passaic County Democratic County Committee is to meet this week to decide who will replace Steele on the November ballot. Among the candidates being considerd are Elease Evans of Paterson, who is the director of the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, and Kenneth Morris, the Paterson City Council president.
Morris said he phoned John Currie, the Passaic County Democratic Party chairman, over the weekend and left a message indicating that he'd like to be considered for the nomination.
"I gave him call to let him know that I was interested," said Morris, who works as the director of governmental affairs at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson.
Morris said he hadn't heard back from Currie by late Monday afternoon, but didn't take that as a rejection. "I'm not surprised," Morris said. "The chairman is extremely busy right now."
Democrats have until Sept. 17 to replace Steele on the ballot. By law, there can be no changes to the ballot within 50 days of the November election.
Oh NO!! That just cannot be .. Fancy Nancy said it was the repubs who had all the corruption ..!!
Bingo! The law means nothing to the New Jersey democrat party, which is nothing more than a highly lucrative criminal entity.
Two rats of 11 willing to do the Republican thing upon exposure and resign. Hmmmmm sounds good except don’t lose sight of the fact that since they will be convicted in federal court ( one of the nice things about being a federal attorney is you only take winning cases), they will have to start building rationale for a lighter sentence. All of these guys are going to prison.
Sammy will get the most time unless he turns and hands somebody up. As a young cop in P.R. he shot a drug dealer in the back then shot himself and claimed the “dead guy did it.” That will hurt him in the federal system. In the rat controlled new jersey system he would not be hurt but well...
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