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Asbury Park
Press
Assembly speaker
still mum
on business deal
profits
Says financial
disclosures for Legislature "speak for itself"
BY GREGORY J. VOLPE,
app.com from the Web, October 2, 2007
TRENTON -- Assembly Speaker
Joseph J. Roberts Jr. again refused Monday to say how much he profited from a
multimillion dollar business deal with Camden County power broker George E.
Norcross III.
A day after Gannett New Jersey detailed how Roberts and Norcross formed two
Delaware corporations to purchase an eyewear manufacturing company called U.S.
Vision, Roberts said he does not need to put a precise figure on how much he
made on the deal.
"My position, I think, is the same as most other members of the Legislature,
that my financial disclosures, which I would note are now much more detailed and
rigorous in New Jersey than they were previously based on some reforms we
adopted in the Legislature, provide a mechanism to indicate what income and
activities legislators have outside the Legislature," Roberts said. "That
would suffice and speak for itself."
Two companies owned by Roberts, Norcross and others, were involved in a
complicated business transaction that increased the value of Roberts' shares to
$1.4 million. Roberts sold his interest in 2003 after he was criticized
for introducing legislation that could have benefited his company by allowing
optometrists to perform laser eye surgery.
Roberts' remark came at a news conference to tout that it appears as if 16 of 20
candidates will qualify in this year's publicly funded campaign experiment known
as Clean Elections — a far cry from the 2005 program in which two of 10 were
able to qualify.
In Clean Elections, being run in three districts this year, candidates forego
traditional fund raising from special interests and get public financing
provided they collect a number of nominal contributions from constituents.
Gregory J. Volpe:
gvolpe@gannett.com
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