In the State House,
Ethics Accusations
Grab the Spotlight
By DAVID W. CHEN, ON
POLITICS, NYTimes on the Web, September 23, 2006
TRENTON, NJ -– Given the
ubiquity of former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who promoted his new autobiography
on “Oprah” and, seemingly, in every news outlet in America, you might think that
the hallways of the State House in the past week would have been filled with
talk about what Mr. McGreevey says about whom in the book.
Or, given that both Senator Robert Menendez and his Republican opponent, State
Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr., got boosts from several high-profile partisans
during the week, you might think that their race for the United States Senate
was the talk of the political establishment, too.
Not even close.
Instead, legislators, lobbyists and government workers were obsessed with the
fate of State Senator Wayne R. Bryant, a Democrat from Camden County and the
influential chairman of the Senate’s Budget Committee.
On Monday, a federal monitor accused Mr. Bryant of having a no-show job at the
state’s medical and dental school that paid him $35,000 a year “to lobby
himself.” While Mr. Bryant issued a statement Tuesday denying the charges,
Democrats spent the balance of the week on the defensive.
From a legal perspective, the accusation could lead to a criminal investigation
on corruption charges. Already, Republicans are whispering loudly that
other Democratic legislators may be tripped up by similar accusations.
From a political perspective, the accusation could hardly come at a worse time
for the Democrats. After all, it was little more than a week ago that John
A. Lynch Jr., a former State Senate president and once the most influential
Democratic Party boss in the state, pleaded guilty to corruption charges.
In many respects, Mr. Bryant’s troubles may be far more problematic, because he
is still in office and may come under a cloud of suspicion should he run for
re-election in 2007.
All 120 seats in both the Senate and the Assembly are up for grabs, and
Democrats are already nervous because of the sales tax increase that Gov. Jon S.
Corzine pushed through in the state budget this summer.
So rest assured that Republicans want to make Mr. Bryant an issue, or at least
make him part of the overall perception that Democrats are incorrigibly corrupt.
“Lawmakers are looking over their shoulders, concerned that ethics questions may
affect them,” said David P. Rebovich, the managing director of the Rider
University Institute for New Jersey Politics. “And Democrats are
concerned: Does the great unraveling start if Bryant goes down?”
It may have been telling that after a news conference Thursday about Mr.
Corzine’s appointments to the State Supreme Court, just about every question
that was unrelated to the Supreme Court focused on Mr. Bryant.
There was not a single question about Mr. McGreevey.
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