Hold Me Accountable: Lance hammers Corzine-Riccio connection
By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com ReporterIn the wake of a Quinnipiac University poll in which a majority of voters say Gov. Jon Corzine should make public his financial dealings with Rocco Riccio, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance again called on Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate Riccio’s role in a government job.
The brother-in-law of state workers union leader and former Gov. Jon Corzine girlfriend, Carla Katz, Riccio apparently quit his government post after Corzine’s people told him he should leave instead of turning into a political flash point. Corzine later admitted to giving Riccio money, a move the governor’s detractors say occurred after Corzine’s people couldn’t get Riccio the private sector job they said they’d secure for him.
"This has less to do with Carla Katz than it has to do with a public employee rifling through people’s tax returns," said Lance, referring to charges swirling around Riccio whilee he worked in the state Department of Human Services.
"I spoke to the Attorney General because I had asked her to investigate this, and she told me her office does not comment on investigations," said Lance of his conversation with Milgram, a corzine administration appointment.
The Senate Minority Leader said Quinnipiac University’s poll today also backs up his argument that a Republican majority in the Upper House would be better poised to combat government waste, fraud and abuse. A majority of New Jersey voters associate corruption more with the Democratic than Republican Party, according to Quinnipiac, and Lance’s message to voters if they want reform is to vote Republican.
"We have 18 votes in the Senate," he said. "To ban dual office-holding we need to get at least 21."
But Quinnipiac also reports that while a majority of voters give the corruption award to Democrats, they don’t believe Republicans have too many answers as an alternative party. Lance said he’s not worried. It’s a matter of his party getting out their message.
"People will undoubtedly become more focused in October," said the minority leader.
Staying on his party’s theme of ethics reform, Lance said Corzine could have and should have "conditionally vetoed "a dual-office holding bill that grandfathers currently serving double-dippers. Signing the measure represented a key failure of leadership, in Lance’s judgement.. "He is the most powerful governor constitutionally, and instead he signed a very weak bill," Lance said.
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Hee hee hee hee
Lance hammers.
That's funny.
Empty Rhetoric, Empty Platform
The so-called Riccio issue is one that seemingly is a non-issue, as Corzine merely gave him some money after he left office -- except this is an "issue" to state Republicans who don't have a platform to run on so they rely on "gotcha" politics.
I'm not sure how a political party who got us into this financial mess in the first place can have the selective amnesia to suggest they are better are combatting "waste" and "fraud," especially when the Whitman administration, which also sough asset monetization, raided pension funds and made shady revenue projections -- all with the help of Lance et al.
What platform are Lance and Senate Republicans running on? "We're against asset monetization, ignore corruption in our own party, and think that personal emails should be made public." They offer no hard choices, no mention of where the state should cut its budget and only play political games (30% in 3 years!) without saying what they would take out of the budget. Color me unimpressed, as should all New Jerseyans, with state Republicans.
Who cares?
Taxes are going through the roof, but the only thing the Mayflower Establishment snobs care about are "ethics."
What these people don't realize is that no one outside the country club thinks that Republicans are more "ethical" than Democrats. This is why voters have no confidence in Republicans to run the state and why Republicans have given away their once formidable lead among the majority of voters who say that high taxes are the leading issue in New Jersey.
Martin
Yes, Martin keep blaming everyone-else but your own party for the financial mess we are in, if that makes you feel better about Corzine, Codey and Roberts incompetence. Answer me this Martin, If Riccio needed financial help why did he not turn to his sister-in-law who received a 6 million dollars in hush money from Corzine. Please explain!
Martin
Yes, Martin keep blaming everyone-else but your own party for the financial mess we are in, if that makes you feel better about Corzine, Codey and Roberts incompetence. Answer me this Martin, If Riccio needed financial help why did he not turn to his sister-in-law who received 6 million dollars in hush money from Corzine. Please explain!
Corruption, apologist or not?
votedemsout: Weren't you eager to defend Martha Bark and Bob Stears in your own county, despite their multiple transgressions against the taxpayers?
Pardon my stating the obvious, but these entire (non) issues concerning emails from Katz-Corzine and contributions to Riccio have very little substance to them and will disappear after the November elections. If Lance and Wilson can keep them in the spotlight (Wilson especially wants to keep attention away from his dealings with the Strategy Group), then voters may not know there isn't a shred of substance to the Republican platforms for state and local elections.
And, if Lance and co. hadn't signed away on boondoggle Whitman budgets that raided pensions and were predicated on shady revenues, we wouldn't be in this budget mess in the first place.
Martin
Get your ADHD in check, I asked you a question. Please answer why a family member would not ask another family memeber for help if they had just received a 6 million dollar payoff? Please do not speak about my Burlington County when you rent in Camden County, it really makes you a laughing stock.
more of the same
votedemsout: When you defend Republican corruption and refuse to condemn it, your credibility is slim to none, I'm afraid. And trolling from board to board, as you do, lessens that thin credibility even more.
The non-issue to which you are referring is Corzine's personal gift to an ex-girlfriend. Are you that much of a voyeur, like Tom Wilson, that you want to read every personal email, even though Corzine has been cleared of any ethical wrongdoing? Will you make the same case for Tom Wilson to release all documents related to the Strategy Group?
Again, Lance's claim that the Republican party is better suited to deal with waste, fraud and corruption is empty rhetoric from a Party bereft of substantive ideas (Wilson couldn't answer one way that Republicans would cut spending on 101.5) and instead resorts to "gotcha" politics on non-issues. At least there are lemmings like votedemsout to follow along.
Martin
Stay focused, find your meds. Maybe eventually you will make an investment in Camden County and buy a home there or is it to corrupt for you to invest your money there. Come up to Burlington County where we eventually, yes eventually clean our house like Bark and Bodine. Now back to the issue, please answer the question. Why would a family member not ask another family member for financial help when that family member just received a lawyer negotiated settlement around 6 million dollars from her former boyfriend? I know if I was in financial trouble I would ask my family for help especially if the owned condo's in Hoboken next to the Governor. Stop trying to dance around the question at hand. Please respond!
confidence??
i have no confidence in anyone in trenton... i don't care which party you are from...
democrats there want to raise taxes and pass feel good laws while increasing government...
republicans just want to increase government while finding nifty ways to attempt to keep taxes 'almost' level...
damnit... between the new proposals for fake drivers licenses to illegals... another proposed gas tax increase... NO budget cuts or layoffs whatsoever... TONS of new completely idiotic bills being proposed on a daily basis... redundant agencies everywhere... beyond excessive corruption... and my taxes forcing me from house & home...
i'm done... i'm not sure what NJ the rest of you are living in... but this *%^* has got to stop as of fricken yesterday...
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. - Will Rogers
Earth to MartinOne...Come in MartinOne
In 2002, Jim McGreevey inherited the same kind of post 9/11 budget that every other governor in America had to deal with. He had a $1 billion hole caused by an economic downturn. By the time his budget message was delivered, he grew it into $2 billion. After six years and $10 billion of new spending in the budget ($23 billion to $33 billion), higher corporate, income, sales, cigarette, and a bunch of other taxes and fees, $15 billion in new debt (debt is now double what it was when your party took over) we have achieved a $3 billion budget hole. You argument that all our fiscal problems today are the result of something Whitman did is pretty stale - understandable since it's 6 years old. Other states bit the bullet and cut spending and balanced their budgets without tax hikes. Over the last two years, those states got to cut taxes because they had megasurplusses.
I saw the agenda that Lance et al put forward (http://www.politicsnj.com/new-jersey-republicans-unveil-choice-change-in...). At least they're recognizing that something different has to happen. Where are your party's "substantive ideas," their agenda, or platform? Their campaigns are no more than a defense of the past 6 years without a shred of what they'll do over the next 2. Unless you count the vague concepts of universal health care and monetization, no one on the other side is talking about doing anything over the next two years.
As to Wilson, you really think that the FBI didn't take every shred of paper or hard drive or record from him and his company that dealt with the Burlington Bridge Commission? What next, some conspiracy theory that Christie has gotten all the career professionals in the FBI and US Attorney's office to clam up to protect Wilson - as if he's that important a figure! Wilson is on his way out and if Christie had that kind of info, he'd take him down in a heartbeat to silence all the bs about him only going after Dems. Come on, your guys won't even say that Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant, who are under indictment, should go. You really think it's credible, in the face of the facts, to stand on your soapbox on this one? I know it makes for a nice campaign diversion, but divorce yourself from the spin machine for a second, be honest and show us that you have at least a little respect for your own credibility.
Speaking of credibility, Lance is right to press Milgram on an independent investigation. Everyone recognized that no one would buy an adminstration led investigation into Zulima Farber. Why isn't the same true for Corzine? If Corzine is so sure that everything is on the up and up (and using five $1,000 money orders to pay your former girlfriend's brother in law certainly suggests that it's all kosher), why not show people that you're willing to be put under a microscope?
gopanimal, endangered species, endangerd party
While there seems to be some logic to JeffH's cynicism towards reform in Trenton, I still have faith that the Corzine administration will fulfill its reform initiatives and continue with changes in how government operates at its core.
The budget numbers that were mentioned in the preceding post don't take into account inflation, unfunded mandates, and other such issues, though one can say that the latest budget has almost no Christmas Tree items whatsoever and finally begins to plug the holes left from not paying pension benefits under the Whitman-McGreevey-Codey administrations. Though the latter two certainly did exacerbate the financial problems from the former's administration, by leaving the state billions in debt, projecting false revenues, giving shady financial accounts of the state economy and so forth, the Whitman administration did indeed begin the road to perdition, so to speak.
What platform do the Democrats have? Though they haven't verbalized it that well -- they don't have to, though they should --, they are running on Corzine's unfinished, but ambitious, projects; I really hope that the "feel good" projects mentioned above isn't such things as making one of the most ambitious state-centered global warming plans ever started, making a ban on dual officeholding and other ethics reform measures, and helping provide health insurance (SCHIP or state-run) to those without insurance. I'm afraid that "gotcha politics" is not what this state needs right now, despite the political theater perpetuated by state Republicans, and many a New Jerseyans sees through their facade for what it really is.
Regarding Tom Wilson, he refused to give all of the financial records of The Strategy Group in the aforementioned sting, and, though he was the single partner with Stears, maintains no knowledge of any rip-offs or illegal activities. Wilson presents himself as a hypocrite when he calls for public voyeurism of Corzine's emails that have already been cleared by an ethics committee; and posters like votedemsout refuse to condemn any Republican corruption, particularly with the rampant nepotism and pay-to-play practices that mark the BurlCo GOP and puppetmaster Paulsen.
wall of text
thanks for the un-readable nonsense...
i'm just happy we outlawed homemade pie... DOWN with homemade pie!!
and DOWN with people talking on cell phones while riding bikes!!
YEAH for gas tax increase!!
WOOHOO for property tax increase!!
HoRAH for sales tax increase!!
I want more!! anyone else??
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. - Will Rogers
hahahahaha
"While there seems to be some logic to JeffH's cynicism towards reform in Trenton, I still have faith that the Corzine administration will fulfill its reform initiatives"
--------------
looooooooooooooooooooooooooool
by what... selling off the turnpike / increasing our tolls / and increasing the gas tax???
i wish i ran my own household budget like he runs the state... i would just yell at my lawn to cough up some more cash to pay the mortgage...
OUR GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE CUT DOWN!!!
it's everywhere... the government is there to protect our rights & freedoms... NOT to tax us into oblivion and pass CRAZY laws that don't do anything...
ALL of you need to go on the nj legislature site and look at the GARBAGE our reps are trying to pass as bills instead of doing ANYTHING useful!!
I hope ALL of you take time to consider how much of your tax money went to pass a state dirt... WE pay people to pass legislation on a STATE DIRT!! DO YOU GET IT NOW???
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. - Will Rogers
Still waiting
Martin, I am still waiting for you to "Man-Up" and answer my question. If you need me to explain what being a man is no problem, but to put it simple, when someone asks you a honest question, you give an honest answer. Please "MAN-UP" and answer my question.