NJ corruption untamed
by conviction streak
By BRAD HAYNES, AP
from the Web, April 27, 2008
TRENTON, N.J. Apr.26 -- You'd
think a six-year streak of corruption convictions by federal prosecutors would
be a powerful deterrent to New Jersey officials who consider abusing their power
for personal gain.
But the Garden State outpaced its neighbors in federal corruption arrests last
year, and the state's top prosecutor expects just as many officials collared
this year.
Since 2002, 128 public employees in New Jersey have been convicted on federal
corruption charges. About a third of those were elected officials, including
state lawmakers, mayors and town council members.
Those numbers back up New Jersey's reputation as a corruption hotbed, fueled by
TV shows like "The Sopranos." Experts say the state's labyrinth of local boards,
commissions and councils has created fiefdoms where fraud and abuse flourish.
Even high-profile corruption cases like this month's conviction of former Newark
Mayor Sharpe James won't end the culture of corruption rooted in many levels of
New Jersey government, according to U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie.
"In parts of the state, there have been decades and decades of corruption
through generations of public leaders," Christie told The Associated Press. "I
don't think you're ever going to end it."
Since taking office as the state's top federal prosecutor in 2002, Christie
hasn't lost a corruption case. But he said putting corrupt politicians behind
bars is only part of the solution -- to make a measurable dent in the political
culture, citizens must hold their elected officials accountable.
"What we've been able to do over the past six and a half years is shine a really
bright light on the problem," he said.
Making his task tougher is the shape of New Jersey government itself. Political
experts say political power is scattered among the state's 21 counties, 566
municipalities and 616 school districts, giving corruption more pockets in which
to hide.
"There's an inordinate number of boards, commissions and regulatory
authorities," said Peter Woolley, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson
University. "The sheer complexity of New Jersey's municipal government makes for
an atmosphere where it's much more difficult to identify corruption."
In 2007, corruption arrests in New Jersey's single federal district outpaced New
York's four combined districts and Pennsylvania's three. Compared to 44 federal
corruption charges in New Jersey last year, federal prosecutors charged 23
public officials in Pennsylvania and 36 in New York.
U.S. attorney's offices in Delaware, Maryland and Connecticut each reported a
dozen or fewer public employees facing corruption charges last year.
Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association, a
Chicago-based public watchdog organization, said three states, New Jersey,
Illinois, and Louisiana, stand out as the nation's corruption capitals.
"It's always the same trifecta," Stewart said. "It's become part of the
political culture -- part of the flavor of the state."
New Jersey's federal corruption arrests in 2007 included:
-- Six former mayors, including James, who was convicted of steering cut-rate
city land to a one-time mistress.
-- Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, Jr., charged with trading public
influence for bribes. Steele pleaded guilty in October. Hackett has pleaded not
guilty.
-- State Sen. Wayne Bryant, charged with steering millions to a medical school
in exchange for a no-work job worth tens of thousands of dollars every year. He
has pleaded not guilty.
-- Five Pleasantville school board members convicted of steering public
contracts in return for bribes.
Of New Jersey's 150 public employees facing federal corruption charges since
2002, 49 held elected office, including 18 mayors, 15 councilmen and six state
lawmakers. All but 20 defendants pending trial were convicted by plea or by
jury. Two officials charged in 2005 died before they were tried, according to an
AP analysis of U.S. attorney arrest announcements.
The corruption cases ranged from Motor Vehicle Commission employees selling
fraudulent licenses to politicians peddling their influence for kickbacks.
The elected officials included 28 Democrats and 16 Republicans, but Christie --
a former top Republican fundraiser appointed by President Bush -- insists his
prosecutions are not influenced by his political affiliation.
"If we were just going after people based on their political party, then where
is the line of innocent people who were acquitted?" Christie asked. He said the
bigger share of Democratic defendants results naturally from prosecuting in a
state with a Democratic majority.
Democrats control both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, the governor's
office and both of the state's U.S. Senate seats. Registered Democrats in the
state outnumber registered Republicans by a 3-to-2 margin.
Few of Christie's critics question his record, but some point to a lucrative
contract awarded to his former boss as a sign that the U.S. attorney isn't above
the backroom politics he prosecutes.
Last fall Christie picked former Attorney General John Ashcroft's legal firm to
monitor an orthopedics manufacturer that settled a federal lawsuit. Democrats
say Ashcroft's firm wasn't qualified for the job, which was worth an estimated
$27 million.
"I applaud the work Christie does as prosecutor, but the bottom line is: He
doesn't get a free pass," said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. "Contracts like
this invite favoritism and backroom politics -- the very thing he is fighting
against."
Christie has denied any conflict of interest in the decision and said the former
attorney general and his firm were qualified for the monitoring work.
Last month, the Justice Department began requiring that contracts for federal
monitoring of corporations be approved by the department's second-ranking
official.
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