Connect the dots

by: Media In Trouble

Thu Feb 09, 2006 at 01:52:01 PM EST

It details how the head of the NJ Turpike Authority is in cohoots a'la Abramoff with the guy who builds most of the Turpike.

Gov. Jon Corzine has asked the state ethics board to investigate the relationship between the New Jersey Turnpike Authority chairman and one of the authority's largest contractors.

Even with the investigation request, Corzine hasn't brought any disciplinary action against Joseph Simunovich, who has acknowledged receiving three flights to and from Florida on a private jet owned by road builder Joseph Sanzari.

A joint venture in which Sanzari is involved has been awarded $52 million in turnpike contracts since 2004.

Nice eh. Corzine may not have given him any disciplinary action yet, but with the TPA being one of the beneficiaries of the foul Transportation Trust Fund, you gotta be happy that at least this guy is under investigation.

Simunovich flew several times between late 2003 and this June on an eight-seat Cessna Citation, which Sanzari partially owns with developer Jon F. Hanson and Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, which owns the Herald News of West Paterson and The Record of Bergen County.

So odd that the CEO of a media conglomerate is flying the TPA head to and from Florida on his private jet. Odder still, the Bergen Record got scooped (by the AC press) on this story.

Just who IS watching the watchers?