Legislators seek ethics probe of Corzine staffer
By EditorTwo Republican legislators are asking the state Ethics Commission to investigate an e-mail written by one of Gov. Jon Corzine's top aides asking cabinet members to come up with creative ways to spin the governor's record on job creation.
Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Middletown) wants to know if Mark Matzen, Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff, violated state ethics laws by asking cabinet members to "be creative" in justifying the administration's accomplishments. Handlin wrote the letter with another Monmouth County GOP legislator, David Rible (R-Wall)
"This revelation is disturbing on so many levels," Rible said. "Not only does it question whether the Governor and his staff adhere to the New Jersey's ethics laws, it suggests that the Governor and his staff are more concerned about their ‘message' than the fact that unemployment is approaching ten percent under their watch.
Handlin says that next month's election must be conducted "without a trace of impropriety."
"The public deserves the assurance that can only be provided by an independent ethical arbiter," Handlin wrote.
Assembly Minority Leader Alec DeCroce (R-Parsippany) says that a state Labor Department report that unemployment is now at 9.8% is evidence that Corzine's claim of creating new private sector jobs is bogus.
The governor may want to ‘stretch' the truth, but the inescapable fact is that New Jersey's unemployment rate is climbing every month and what is most disturbing is that private sector jobs fell another 12,000 in the past month," said DeCroce, who also cited Matzen's e-mail.
Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce said today that newly released figures from the state Department of Labor prove conclusively that New Jersey is "bleeding jobs" and Gov. Jon Corzine's claim that his economic policies are creating more private sector jobs - about 121,200 -- is false.
"The governor can stage as many media events as he likes," said DeCroce, citing the Matzen e-mail. "He can try his best to convince people his administration is creating jobs. But numbers don't lie, and they tell a different story."
Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-Ocean Twp.) said Corzine's use of his taxpayer-funded staff to coordinate campaign style evets is a "disturbing" betrayal of the public trust.
"New Jerseyans deserve answers and transparency immediately from the Governor about the full extent of this behavior," Angelini said.
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Figures lie and liars figure. The true cost and effect on people from the global and severe downturn in the economy should not be used in the NJ governors race. NJ is a pimple on the ass of an elephant in this economic discussion. Who are you scoring points with? Over 15,000,000 people are unenemployed in the US. Oh yeah, that must be Corzine's fault. Grow the f%$k up.
What do expect from the Italian Bernie Madoff?
Corzine’s from Wall Street — based on what Democrats say about capitalism and the leaders of the big Wall Street firms, they should be all over him for cooking the books.
Corzine cooking the unemployment books needs to be investigated ASAP.
To: Peterendina
You should take a look at the numbers and ranks of our neighboring states. I know this is crazy but they, like us, are all part of the national exconomic depression and they *still* aren't doing as poorly as New Jersey is. You want to live in a hole and lay New Jersey's finacial woes all on a national level, that is your business. But it would be completely blind to do so. No one made any ridiculous claim that Corzine is the entire cause of every job loss or economic issues or even financial woe Jersey has. However, you don't have to look far or long to see that New Jersey is worse off now then it was even 4 years ago and that New Jersey is struggling in a way that our neighboring states are not. Our state is 50 in property tax, 47 in income tax, and 41 in corporate income tax. Corzine kept peddling job growth in New Jersey when the truth was we had job loss. Cozine wants to peddle alot of untruths and hope that the people of New Jersey are too stupid to see what is really going on. But since you want to defend Corzine, please tell us what Corzine has done in four years to make anything in this state better? I dare you to come up with anything worth while. I bet my house you can't. He had his chance. He did nothing and he is still doing nothing but finding more "creative" ways to campaign. I don't know what the other canidates will bring but I do know what Corzine has to offer. I've seen it. And I don't need to see anymore. It's time for someone new.