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Gee, Senate seats and Pay-To-Play. Hmmmm. Where have I heard that before? No, not Mr. Blagojevich, Not Illinois. I'm talking about Jersey. Specifically, my introduction to the politics of the BCDO.
The year was 2005, and I was excited to participate in my very first special election to help choose a NJ State Senator. Byron Baer was retiring and his seat was open. Before the next election, the County Committee of District 37 got to choose who replaced him before the next general election. That is how a lot of NJ legislators get their seats. The folks retiring wait till their party can replace them without the possibility of the other party winning an election. The incumbents always have the edge. Anyway, Joe Ferriero thought he had it made. He PROMISED Baer's seat to Ken Zisa.
Only a few folks stood in the way. The folks who openly endorsed Loretta Weinberg for the seat who actually (gasp!) planned on voting for her. Some folks from Bergenfield. A few upstarts from Englewood who had been thrown off the line for dissenting. A few upstarts from Teaneck. The entire Tenafly Municipal Committee (Tenafly had already been soaked by Mr. Oury for a half million during COAH battle where he was a court appointed attorney, and the Dems here were told that if they wanted $$$ help from the BCDO they would have to let Joe pick their Attorney and their Engineer- appalled, they said no to Joe), and the Black Caucus.
Less than 250 votes were needed. It didn't take long for the Pro-Ferriero forces to realize, they could just go after the BCDO folks who didn't have County Jobs, African American voters from District 37, The entire Tenafly County Committee, and the few Pro-Loretta voters from Bergenfield.
Soooo, Tim Driscoll gets a call not to show up at the election by Clancy (Rabbit's live-in boyfriend), because of the resignation letter. (To paraphrase Yosemite Sam - "Criminals is SO stupid!") Why would Clancy call Driscoll to tell him he (Driscoll) resigned? At the election, 5 of the Tenafly committee - including 3 sitting Councilmen and our Treasurer were challenged at the election. In a month long legal effort to get the votes of the "Tenafly 5" counted, instead of losing by 1 vote, Loretta Weinberg wins by 4. All 5 Tenafly votes were for her.
To fill Loretta's seat, Valerie Huttle steps up to the plate, and we endorse her against Michael Wildes. At THAT election nearly ALL the Tenafy folks including ME and the folks already declared eligible to vote by the Courts, are challenged. After about 5:30 - every African American voter gets pulled out of line. The ENTIRE Teaneck Committee gets challenged too. Anyone who even LOOKS like they will vote for Valerie gets challenged.
Rothman, to his credit, corrects the horrendous assault on decency and lets our Committee and the Teaneck Committee vote. Even though many votes are still provisional, Valerie wins enough so we don't need to head to court.
In 2006, to get rid of the insurgency of folks against Pay-to-Play and any open supporters of Loretta and Valerie, Joe throws us on Column 4 in the election. We work like hell to keep our seats. Most of us do.
I nominate an opponent to Joe Ferriero at his re-election because being from Tenafly - the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, our vote actually means something precious to us here and Joe's attempts to take that from us, infuriate us.
Then Joe and Oury cook up a plot to make the County Committee votes for District State Senator County-wide instead of District wide. He hopes to get enough help from creeps OUTSIDE D37 to unseat his honest nemesis, Senator Weinberg. In an insta-protest we stage with the help of Blue Jersey, we get enough votes to kill that effort to give folks outside our district Representation without Representation (it would be like NJ residents voting for Gov of NY)
After that nonsense, we lose faith in the unsecret County Committee "elections" enough to ask Loretta Weinberg and team to run off the line. They do and the Real Bergen Democrats are born. To give a voice to the opposition slate opposed to Pay-to-Play and to create a vehicle that allows Tim Driscoll and his team of anti-corruption Dems to win the Mayor's seat and kick Oury out of his comfy Borough Attorney's position - which by the way is another sad corruption story responsible for Oury's current unhappiness with the justice system - his September indictment with Joe Ferriero.
All this time, these three years we spent fighting Joe and Oury and Elaine Rabbit and Mulligan and their attempts to run a write in campaign after losing the Primary to Tim Driscoll and his team of Real Bergen Democrats. We fought through the sham BCDO "elections", the Bylaws attacks and Bylaws breaches by Ferriero, and the attempts to bring in the heavy hitters to kick more of us out of our County Committee seats in 2008. We withstood it all. Tim Driscoll and Bruce Carlson holding down the fort for us in Bergenfield, Charlotte Bennett Schoen and her team holding the fort for us and Theresa Thomas keeping us informed from Englewood, the entire Tenafly Municipal Commitee led by Shama Haider keeping us Ferriero-free and Pay-to-Play free in Tenafly, and the Teaneck Committee fending off attacks on their non-partisan town by Ferriero's "Team Teaneck" who play the "religion card", while also fending off Dennis Oury's "Master Plans" for real estate deals in Teaneck. Some of our favorite Real Bergen Dems in Teaneck lost due to a concerted effort by Joe to get rid of them in the Primary, but we withstood many attacks on our seats when many folks said it couldn't be done. We kept them at bay.
I give great Kudos to Driscoll and Carlson, particularly for having to actually sit at the Council mtgs and deal with Mulligan and Rabbit. I am so happy to see that Christmas came early for Bergenfield. Tim Driscoll finally gets some justice.
Although the Blagojevich story unfolded in Illinois, it at least is educating folks in NJ what Pay-to-play is and why they should care. I was startled to hear folks on Chris Matthews show saying that this doesn't happen a lot. I sat up and said "Hello! It does in NJ!" at the TV. Mathews was shocked that Blagojevich used the term Pay-to-Play, but he doesn't realize - Joe and Oury almost sued NJ because they equate it with "free speech". I guess they figure if they say it enough here in NJ it will lose its shock value.
And so this indictment is vindicating. When the public finally now knows what Pay-to-Play is. After Dennis Oury and Joe Ferriero are already indicted. In a shadenfreud- like stupor, I imagine Dennis, Joe, Mulligan, Rabbit and Joe Coniglio all in a Good Fellas style prison where Joe is making the Sunday gravy and serving it over some stuffed peppers - cause that's all they can get there (and I know how much Ferriero hates stuffed peppers).
It all started with a Senate Seat. And a mentality that it was up for sale - or it was OWED to someone, or PROMISED to someone. This happened here in Bergen County, not Illinois, but it IS more common than the average voter would like to think.
Well, it's off to daydream about which Pay-to-Play Party Boss or corrupt elected official my all-time favorite hero Warren Monroe will catch next........ :)
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