When NJ attorney general Anne Milgram got a five month extension to get her act together, New Jersey voters were left wondering if their vote will be properly counted.
It was Madonna, Lord Byron Juan Melli who once cleverly remarked "we can send a man to the moon in ten years but they can't figure out how to print out a piece of paper in three!"
We have an election three weeks from today. Go ahead and cross your fingers now, watch the video and send it to every New Jerseyan you know.
Lots of suing going on today. Attorney General Anne Milgram is being sued for violating the rights of a whistleblower.
Former state Athletic Control Board Commissioner Larry Hazzard Sr., who oversaw New Jersey boxing for 22 years, has responded to Attorney General Anne Milgram's decision to fire him last November by filing a federal lawsuit.
Filed in U.S. District Court in Camden, the lawsuit claims the attorney general violated Hazzard's constitutional rights to free speech as well as the state's Conscientious Employee Protection Act by firing him for blowing the whistle on an underling. He is seeking reinstatement to his $115,000-a-year job, back pay and punitive damages for being exposed to "public disgrace."
Not even former Attorney Generals Zulima Farber or Peter Harvey were sued by their colleagues. This is the type of thing that could be career-ending. With so many of her top people recently leaving can we expect even more lawsuits?
"We need the waiver enabling California's proposed greenhouse gas emission standards for new motor vehicles, which are vital to the health and well being of New Jersey residents," state Attorney General Anne Milgram said.
EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson yesterday denied a request from California to implement stricter greenhouse gas emission standards than the federal government mandates. California had received more than 40 such waivers in the past. Apparently this was done as a favor to the auto industry in exchange for their muted opposition to the energy bill. This was the first time such a waiver request was denied. Over a dozen states, including New Jersey, have adopted the California standard, so in effect we were also denied the ability to adopt stricter standards.
The EPA knows the decision is bullshit. An internal powerpoint presentation had a slide addressing what would happen if they denied the waiver and were taken to court. It admitted: "EPA likely to lose suit".
Earlier today Assemblyman Reed Gusciora - the sponsor of the 2004 law that tied the state's emission standards to California's - wrote to Attorney General Anne Milgram to urge the state to join California "in any imminent litigation seeking to reverse the EPA's decision." California has announced the state will sue the EPA.
"It's a horrendous decision," said Corzine, who pushed New Jersey to adopt tougher standards on greenhouse gas emissions. "The fact that the EPA has used sort of crazy reasoning to get to their solution is just a horrible decision. Some of us are considering pursuing legal action on this score."
New York Governor Spitzer called the EPA's decision "incomprehensible," while Vermont, Maryland and Washington state have already announced they will take legal action.
Civil Unions are a failure - "I could lose my job for saying that"
Division of Civil Rights Director and Civil Unions Review Commission chair Frank Vespa-Papaleo says the state's civil union law is not working:
"To me as a commissioner, the testimony revealed overwhelmingly that the civil union law has been a failure. It is not working as effectively as if the word 'marriage' were used...That could be controversial. I could lose my job for saying that."
Indeed, there have been rampant rumors that Attorney General Milgram is considering replacing Vespa-Papaleo. Governor Corzine has said the issue of marriage equality shouldn't be on the table until 2009. Would the administration fire its highest-ranking openly gay official for daring to speak the truth?
I don't hear any global warming
Senator Lautenberg fought for improvements to global warming legislation that passed a Senate subcommittee yesterday.
Due to drought and above average temperatures during 4 of the last 6 months, all of South Jersey has been declared a disaster area by the US Dept of Agriculture.
Shouldn't we finish one botched war first?
Scott Garrett wants to lead us down the war path to Iran.
$250,000 for fecal tomatoes
The 4th ward council race in Hoboken is proving to be a costly one - over a quarter million dollars have been spent so far for a chance to represent the ward now famous for its fecal tomatoes. More than half of Chris Campos' money has come from politicians while a third of Dawn Zimmer's came from her own pocket.
Around the state
The New York Times writes about New Jersey Republicans playing the terror card.
Senate Majority Leader hopeful Senator Paul Sarlo is spreading the love all over the state to the tune of over $290,000. Senator Tom Kean Jr has given out $70,000 and was less honest about his intentions: "The reason I'm giving support to other candidates is because Trenton is broken and needs a change of direction."
Money for Abbott school districts has run out while wealthier suburban schools are receiving state funding for new projects.
Multiple groups are working against the various ballot questions in Tuesday's election, but history is not on their side - it's been 17 years since one has been defeated.
Rutgers is moving forward with plans to spend $100 million on their football stadium while they slash funding for other sports and academics.
The Daily Record endorsed Dana Wefer over Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll.
Will NJ get stuck with the Delaware river dredge spoils?
Democracy is not a spectator sport
Election day is coming up. Know of a campaign looking for volunteers? List any opportunities in the comments below. Find one near you and get involved.
US Attorney Chris Christie has made a name for himself as the only prosecutor in the state who has taken on public corruption, largely because he repeatedly made the claim and the media printed it without checking.
This has been an extremely helpful theme for him, portraying himself as the lone gunman out to get the bad guys against a corrupt and weak establishment. It works even better for this Republican prosecutor as the establishment is Democratic, since anyone who complains about Christie's tactics is immediately beaten down with Lonely Knight on a White Horse illusions. Even some Democrats out there, and some of our commenters on this site, treat Christie as if he is the one true king come to save us all from public corruption.
No one can deny that Christie's office is doing an excellent job of nailing corrupt pols. It started before Christie with the FBI investigating Jim Treffinger and Monmouth County corruption, two major investigations into Republicans Christie inherited but has used to bolster his bi-partisan armor. To his credit, Christie has directed his teams -- prosecutorial and investigative -- to continue the effort.
But Christie has taken a particular glee in the fight, and used his bully pulpit excessively to promote himself, support members of his own party, and attack others. Some of us consider it unseemly and borderline misuse of office, others consider it his due to beat his chest after vanquishing opponents.
But one major piece of his puzzle -- that he has been alone from the start -- appears to be a myth. Christie's favorite target was Peter Harvey, who by all accounts wasn't a terribly good AG, for never doing anything to take on corrupt public officials.
But is that true? Our investigation suggests it is not, and in fact is a gross misstatement of fact.
The fact is that there were 41 convictions [see all here] of public corruption under Peter Harvey, who started in February 2003 and left in June 2006. Many of these were small fry, as many of Chris Christie's have been. However, there were also:
Hainesport Mayor and CFO for embezzling $339,000;
NJ Division of Taxation official Michael Johnson for stealing $81,000 in public money;
Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Imreveduto for misuse of campaign funds was kicked out of office;
Democratic Atlantic City Councilman Marty Small for tampering with election ballots;
Commerce Commission Chief of Staff Lesly Devereau for corruption and criminal conspiracy;
NJ Transit general manager and vice president Maureen Milan for taking bribes;
Many, many, many motor vehicle commission officials for selling false licenses to illegal aliens.
That's 41 in just over three years for Harvey, while Christie boasts repeated -- and his media friends repeat -- that he now has 120 in six years. We found a total of 62 public corruption convictions from the AG's office since 2003, and there are more before that but the AG's website doesn't list them. So, it is true that Christie has a larger number and some higher profile corruption cases, but there is a good reason for that.
Chris Christie is the only United States Attorney in New Jersey. If there is going to be a case of corruption brought under federal law in this state it is going to be brought by the US Attorney, who since 2002 was Chris Christie.
The New Jersey Attorney General is only one of many prosecuting agencies in the state, but in addition to the Attorney General each county has it's own prosecutor with his or her own investigative team. Most cases of local and county officials violations of state law are brought to court under the county prosecutor's office.
These have brought significantly more cases to the fore. A short review of just a couple county prosecutor web sites -- which are really weak -- found another 9 cases in the past couple years. Since there are 21 county prosecutors, that adds up to quite a few other prosecutions.
We can't say for sure, but are pretty willing to bet that there are far more than 120 public corruption convictions brought by state and county officials over the past seven years. All the 21 county prosecutors would need is three and a half each over those six years to reach that number. Seriously, does anyone doubt that there weren't that many? In relatively quiet Somerset County there were two Mayors forced to resign after convictions, the son of the Freeholder's Chief Clerk caught stealing from county property, a police officer nailed for stealing airline miles, and the recent park scandal.
So it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that prosecutors appointed by the Governor (AG and county prosecutors) have nailed more corrupt public officials and employees than the US Attorney's office. Yet the myth of the Lone Anti-Corruption Knight Templar Chris Christie continues.
A good bit of this comes from the fact that Peter Harvey was largely incompetent and screwed up some high-profile cases, and was himself caught in unethical though not illegal situations. Further, Christie and Harvey had a massive personality conflict that caused the two to go after each other quite often.
But the "accepted wisdom" that came out of these facts is sorely mistaken, no matter how often reporters, editors and columnists repeat it.
There is a massive corruption issue in New Jersey, one that is being addressed at all levels. Christie is not the sole fighter in the battle, but simply the loudest and most noticeable.
I have to say that I'm a bit perturbed by comments like this disparaging Attorney General Anne Milgram. She was sworn into office at the end of June. At this point, she has held office for just over three months. Legal investigations take time (for comparison, US Attorney Chris Christie has been investigating US Senator Bob Menendez for almost a full year with no results - and no end in sight).
If, for some reason, you don't care about making our streets safer by busting violent street gangs, drug rings, racketeering, and kiddie porn rings - what kind of freaking person are you? - and you only care about political crimes (note: busting a police officer and corrections officers qualifies as "corruption fighting" in my book) then consider that the Somerset County Parks Commission is being investigated by the State AG - and so is the Jersey City municipal courts division. Neither case is close to being done but both have resulted in multiple resignations as the AG gathers evidence.
So let's lay off the complete BS idea that Anne Milgram isn't doing her job. Her job includes a lot more than just rounding up corrupt politicians. But let's also squelch the BS that she is turning a blind eye to political corruption - or that she is only pursuing one party or the other. Sure, I'd like to see more and I think that both the judges and parks people are fairly low level - but they are higher profile than a housing inspector taking $300.
It's odd that the ones who are most loudly criticizing Anne Milgram are also defending Chris Christie, who had not done quite so much in his first 100 days as Ms. Milgram has.
With a phalanx of State Police at his back, Governor Corzine unveiled the first step (of three) to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe.
With a sharp eye on gangs and illegal guns, the Governor -- along with AG Milgram and State Police look to use technology to get an edge on the bad guys.
Gov. Jon Corzine said this afternoon he is asking Attorney General Anne Milgram to issue an opinion about whether Atlantic City Mayor Bob Levy has "abandoned his office."
Levy hasn't been seen since last Wednesday and the city's unelected business administrator - Domenic Cappella - has been running the city.
Except for an unacceptably vague statement last week, Levy won't say where exactly he is, why he's there or for how long he'll be gone. Clearly, he's abandoned his office.
After months of consideration and meeting with countless interested parties - including immigrant and civil rights groups, law enforcement professionals, and advocates who work with domestic violence victims - last week New Jersey's Attorney General finally issued a long-awaited directive on the issue of what role local police can play in federal immigration enforcement. (Background here).
In a nutshell, the directive says that local police must inquire about immigration status upon arrest of a suspect for an indictable offense, and report individuals suspected of being undocumented to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It also says that police may not ask witnesses, victims or people seeking assistance about their status.
The directive includes strong statements about immigration enforcement being the primary duty of the federal government, about the counterproductive consequences of entangling local police in immigration enforcement, and about the state's commitment to combating racial profiling.
Nevertheless, for police professionals and community advocates alike, the directive raises more questions than it answers. The problem is what the directive doesn't say.
This is a big accomplishment for Corzine and Milgram. Cue the wailing and teeth-gnashing from the NRA... (press release):
Governor Jon S. Corzine, along with Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia division of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Mark Potter, Attorney General Anne Milgram and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Rick Fuentes today announced a historic agreement between New Jersey and the ATF that will allow the state to more effectively trace the sources of illegal firearms through real-time electronic access to the ATF's e-Trace system.
"Gun violence in New Jersey and across America is stealing young lives and killing innocent people. Together, we must all do more to provide security for our communities and families," Corzine said. "This new, first-in-the-nation partnership will allow us to pursue, arrest and prosecute the purchasers and sellers of illegal guns that have plagued our streets and communities for far too long."
E-trace is a nationwide database maintained by the ATF that lists a firearm's first purchaser, date of purchase and the retailer from which it was purchased. The information is compiled from police records of gun purchases provided by local departments, but until today was only accessible by the ATF and the police department that provided it.
"Firearms tracing identifies the illegal source of firearms and provides law enforcement invaluable leads to target firearms traffickers," said Special Agent Potter. "The New Jersey State Police and ATF have partnered in this country's first of a kind state clearing house for gun tracing. The importance of this project cannot be minimized: comprehensive firearms tracing saves lives."
"This is a critically important partnership to help us trace illegal guns that are used in crimes in New Jersey," Attorney General Anne Milgram said. "It will help us use intelligence-led policing to catch criminals and stop the spread of illegal guns."
The Attorney General also announced today that she is issuing a directive to all police departments in the state that will require the departments to forward all gun tracing information to E-Trace to create a data-base that can be shared by all law enforcement in the state. Currently, only 30 percent of local departments across the nation provide firearm sourcing information to the e-Trace system.
"We are fully committed to protecting the integrity of our elections in New Jersey," said Milgram. "We want to ensure a paper trail that is accurate, reliable and can be audited."
More from the story on what prompted her decision...
Milgram's refusal to certify the machines used in 20 of the state's 21 counties comes less than a month after computer scientists at the New Jersey Institute of Technology found flaws with printers in all three voting machine types it tested.
Problems ranged from printers that ran out of paper too quickly to printer cables that were deemed prone to tampering. There were also flaws with the machines' ability to alert poll workers to malfunctions, according to a report on the testing.
The state commissioned NJIT's Center for Information Technology in Newark to test the machines after voters' rights groups challenged the integrity of the machines in court.
My favorite part of the story is where the voting machine manufacturers talk about how researchers "misunderstood" the state guidelines and that the problems could be easilly fixed. I'm sorry, the researchers didn't research the guidlines before doing all their work? I'm glad the AG is paying attention. It's only our votes at stake.
"I started to get e-mails asking me out on dates. That's the first time that's ever happened to me. I'm sure it's because of all the kind publicity and the pictures in the newspaper, but it's certainly something that never happened.
"I have not accepted any of those offers, but I did go over to see Stuart [Rabner] because I got an e-mail. I said Stuart, I need your advice, I need to know how you handled these issues as attorney general. I went over and I handed him the e-mail and he was hysterical for two minutes. Then he just handed it back to me and said, 'This never happened to me.'"
Update: Rollcall vote starts NOW at 2:20pm. Finally! Only Gill voted no and the nomination goes on to the full Senate!
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin any minute and the big item on the docket is confirmation hearings.
As you all know there's a vacancy on the State Supreme Court and the Governor has tapped Stuart Rabner to fill the slot. That nomination should take a giant step forward this morning, pending the results of the Committee vote.
I should note this committee is comprised of a wildly diverse cast of characters including Kean jr, Nia Gill, Lesnaik, Cardinale as well as my own Senator, John Adler who's chairman. I love covering judiciary, never a dull moment.
Likewise, Rabner's promotion would mean a new Attorney General and Corzine has chosen Anne Milgram for the post. Her confirmation process will follow Rabner's.
And it starts any second. So stay tuned!
UPDATE 11:05am: Adler asks Rabner about some tough issues: Abbott schools, the death penalty, gay marriage, security v/s liberty. So far, Stu is handling it all with considerable aplomb.
Camden is dearly in need of revitalization and city fixture Campbell's is in a position to provide it- if their wants are met. The NY Times has the story.
Many folks who had flood insurance are still waiting for their settlements from April's storms and are voicing anger at the National Flood Insurance Program, who says they're still in their 60-day payment window.
Did you miss New Jersey Pride Day yesterday? It may have been a little wet, but it was still faaaaaaaabulous. It was a lot of fun and also a chance to reflect on how far we've come (AIDS) and how far we have yet to go for full equality. Check out the report.
NYTimes: "Lots of people who want to see the Empire State Building have made the same calculation in recent years - that you can visit New York without staying there - and in the process have helped transform northern New Jersey, especially the Meadowlands, into a spare bedroom for Manhattan."
The Iraq war rages on. No end in site. But for one military mom named Sue Niederer, it's time to bring 'em home now. If you read one thing from today's roundup, this should be it. And thanks to pInky's Monica Yant Kinney for keeping these stories fresh and personal.
It's a busy budget time in Trenton and that's what I'll be following up there this week. "Christmas Tree" items are due on the 6th. Stay tuned for all that.
And last but certainly not least, for every Blue Jersey T-shirt you buy we can pay for a whole month's web hosting costs. Does that put it in some perspective?
Did you see last night's debate? Were you at Pride? Did I miss something? The floor is yours so hit up with your best shot!!
According to the Courier Post, Governor Corzine has called a 5pm press conference today to announce his new choice for Attorney General to replace Zulima Farber who resigned last week.
Speculation about a replacement has centered around two Corzine administration officials -- Anne Milgram, the second-in-command at the attorney general's office, and Corzine's chief counsel, Stuart Rabner.
Update: The Associated Press & Gannett are reporting that Stuart Rabner will be the next Attorney General. We will see at 5pm.
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