Governor Christopher Christie today signed an executive order essentially freezing the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and creating an advisory panel chaired by former state Sen. Marcia Karrow (R-Raritan) to issue recommendations about its future – drawing applause from COAH opponents and the promise court challenge by an affordable housing advocacy group.
“Governor Christie promised to gut COAH and he has inserted the knife,”said Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Wayne). “Municipalities no longer have to worry about bureaucrats in Trenton inflicting impossible quotas that only result in higher property taxes without any more housing opportunity.”
State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), a prime sponsor of legislation that seeks to do away with COAH in favor of an alternate means of towns meeting their affordable housing quotas, said that he was “encouraged” that the order freezes COAH.
“COAH won’t be able to do any more damage to New Jersey’s economic well-being,” he said. “Affordable housing development and job growth will once again be allowed to take place without the agency’s cumbersome and costly rules and regulations.”
But Fair Share Housing Center Associate Director Kevin Walsh called the executive order illegal and said that it would bring progress in the construction of affordable housing to a “grinding halt,” despite the order’s exception for shovel ready projects.
Walsh said his group would file a request for review of the executive order with the Appellate Division.
“Governors execute laws; they are not permitted to supplant the legislature. Governors may not issue edicts that take over the role of independent state agencies,” said Walsh. “This is as clear a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers as it gets.”

Republican State Chairman Jay Webber said that U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s (D-Hoboken) attempt to help a failing bank run in part by a major donor and a key political ally is part of a pattern of “unprecedented actions by a United States senator to benefit campaign donors.”
“To the extent that a United States senator is directly commenting and trying to affect a regulatory decision, I think it’s highly inappropriate, and Senator Menendez once again crossed the line,” said Webber.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Menendez sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urging him to approve an acquisition of First BancoAmericano, which is chaired by attorney Joseph Ginarte, who has donated $30,000 to Menendez’s political accounts since 1999, and vice-chaired by state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth). The paper reported that Ginarte and Lesniak could have seen some of their investments in the institution salvaged had a merger been approved. It was not.
To Webber, the story has a striking similarity to a previous controversy over the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a medical device for injured knees. After lobbying that the agency described as “intense and extreme” by Menendez, U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), Reps. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) and Steve Rothman (D-Englewood) – all of whom had recently been given significant contributions by the New Jersey-based manufacturer, ReGen Thearpeutics – FDA higher-ups approved the device for sale, despite ruling in previous years that it was unsafe.
“Nobody would object if he simply wrote a letter touting the merits of the position of his constituents… Both with the FDA and the Fed, he crossed the line from advocating for constituents to trying to affect the outcome of the process,” said Webber. “I’m sure that whoever runs against Senator Menendez in 2012 will not let voters forget about the various pings on his record in this record. There’s a pattern that the senator engaged in and people will be reminded of it.”
After the bank’s failure, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – which had to spent $15 million when the Fed allowed the bank to fail -- wound up auctioning it off to Crown Bank, which is owned by JJR Holding Company, Inc. -- the same company that had originally wanted to acquire it.
The request for Menendez’s help was made by a consulting firm that was working on the merger.
"By criticizing the fight to save a local, independent bank, the chairman of the state Republican Party is applauding the fact that bank branches are closing and lending is drying up in New Jersey communities where families and small business owners are starved for financial services,” said Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi in a written statement.
Former state senate candidate Richard Dennison told PolitickerNJ.com today that he plans to announce a run for Burlington County Democratic chairman shortly.
“I’ve been following the typical volley that’s been happening on your Web site, in the papers, in phone calls with friends,” said Dennis, a Florence resident. “Our party has a huge vacuum of leadership. I definitely think there’s a huge constituency in the party that’s not being served.”
Dennison’s bid comes shortly after Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delanco), who had gathered significant support for his chairmanship, dropped out of the race. Dennison supported Conaway, who has not elaborated on why he decided not to run.
“I was a bit disappointed to see him bail out, to be honest with you,” said Dennison. “Our party is in paralysis right now, make no mistake about it. I see so much potential in this county.”
The Burlington County Democratic Committee will pick its new chairman in June. At least one other candidate, Riverside Municipal Chairman Gary Haman, is running for it.
Irrepressible door pounder Second Ward Councilman Andre Sayegh pledges to knock on 10,000 doors while simultaneously raising $10,000 toward his mayoral campaign - an effort he calls a “Dollar for Change.”
"These are tough times and people are looking for a leader who will fight for them to bring jobs and safe streets back to Paterson,” said Sayegh, already certified as a candidate in his contest with two-term incumbent Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres and Council President Jeffrey Jones.
"We may not raise as much money as the current mayor, but we do plan to have the biggest army of volunteers supporting our campaign,” said Sayegh Campaign Manager Tarona Lee.
Legislation to prohibit some lobbyists from enrolling in taxpayer-paid pension systems and the state health benefits program was introduced by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Washington Twp.).
"Our system has for too long been burdening our property taxpayers, and, to put it simply, paying pensions and health benefits for lobbyists is unacceptable," said Moriarty. "It’s inconceivable that lobbyists are benefiting from these systems at taxpayer expense. A mistake was made a long time ago to allow. It's time to end it.”
The bill, A-2115, would eliminate eligibility for newly hired officers and employees of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Association of Counties, the New Jersey School Boards Association, any school board insurance group, any county college joint insurance group, any county or municipal joint insurance fund and any corporation designated to manage a special improvement district established by municipal ordinance. It would also prohibit any officer or employee of an educational foundation created by or on behalf of a higher education institution in this state for the purpose of receiving donations from becoming a member of the pension system on the basis of that employment.
NEWARK - Mayoral candidate Clifford Minor promises to field a Latino on what is now only his partially formed Newark's Choice ticket, he told PolitickerNJ.com.
Minor, a retired Essex County prosecutor and municipal judge, said his decision has nothing to do with hearing on-the-trail politically correct groans about his all-black ticket.
He always intended to run with a Latino(a) - one of the reasons attorney Juliana Blackburn Maldonado was on his team, before abruptly pulling the plug on her candidacy for professional reasons.
"That will be coming out very shortly," said Minor, referring to plans to unveil a running mate from the heavily Latino North Ward.
Blackburn Maldonado, in fact, helped Minor find her replacement - who is already in place, added the mayoral candidate. He's just not yet ready to make the name public.
"We are not going to say that we are not multi-cultural in our approach to running the city, but understand, there is a lot of pressure being put on people in the North Ward," Minor said. "Some people have been told not to get involved. They (the North Ward Democratic Organization) are concerned with the team we have already assembled because they are vulnerable."
NEWARK - The people will judge Central Ward Councilman Charles Bell, said a disappointed Clifford Minor, Mayor Cory Booker's challenger in the May 11th municipal election.
"Charles Bell has been around for some time and the people have a strong affection for Charles Bell," said Minor. "I and members of my team were upset about his change. We thought he would have at least talked to us since many of us worked very hard for him. The question for the people of the Central Ward will be whether they feel betrayed by Mr. Bell."
This is a bitter story.
When he famously defeated Booker's candidate in 2008 and landed on the Council as the Central Ward councilman, Bell was supposed to be the guy who was going to soften up the Booker franchise and help topple it from the inside.
That was the strategy anyway.
Stung by Booker allies hoisting campaign signs that read "Charles Bell equals corruption and waste," Bell at his swearing-in ceremony conveyed an emblem of dissent to gleeful former Sharpe James supporters and other discarded council people like Ras Baraka and Gayle Cheneyfield-Jenkins.
But something happened to Bell once he arrived on the council.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez pushed the Federal Reserve to approve an acquisition of a failed Elizabeth bank run that would have protected the investments of State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Joseph Ginarte, a major campaign contributor, according to a Wall Street Journal report. First BankAmericano failed last July after the board declined to take action. Losses were estimated at $163 million. Click here to read Menenendez's letter.
The CEO of the failed bank was Holly Bakke, who served as Commissioner of Banking and Insurance under Gov. James E. McGreevey. The attorney for the bank was Michael Horn, a former Republican Assemblyman who was state Banking Commissioner under Gov. Thomas Kean. Horn served on one of Gov. Christopher Christie’s transition teams.
Menendez, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, told the newspaper that helping the failed bank, which served Elizabeth’s Hispanic community, was the right thing to do. "If any New Jersey constituent—regardless if it is a family or a local community bank—comes to me seeking assistance with a legitimate federal matter, not only is it important to help, I was elected to help," he told the Wall Street Journal. "Telling them 'no' would be abdicating my responsibility."
Garden State Equality fires new broadside at Dems Smarting over the state Senate's refusal to pass marriage equality and disillusioned at the moment with the Democratic Party majority, Garden State Equality’s 85-member Board of Directors unanimously decided against giving financial contributions to political parties and their affiliated committees. ...
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