GOP goes after Akbar issue as Corzine targets business owners in Rahway
Rahway Mayor James Kennedy gives Gov. Jon Corzine the rooftop tour at the Hotel Indigo.

GOP goes after Akbar issue as Corzine targets business owners in Rahway

By Max Pizarro | August 18th, 2009 - 2:45pm
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RAHWAY - A classic blue collar train trestle town, Rahway this morning welcomed Gov. Jon Corzine to its beautified downtown against a backdrop of local politics turned ugly.   

"I've lived my whole life in Rahway and it never looked like this," the smiling barrister said of the 10-year old station and subsequent business buildup, which includes a Soho-style coffee shop, which opened in June.

In the Indigo Hotel, anchor of the same hipster complex, a packed elevator with Corzine on board shot to the top. Sixteenth floor. Tallest building in Union County.

"Sorry," the governor told a young woman sunbathing on the rooftop as he strode past with Mayor James Kennedy and took a look at the industrial wasteland to the north where the train track snakes toward a heat-hazed New York skyline.

Then they strolled to the other side of the roof and looked west at the green treetops stretching into the same filmed-over distance.

Moments later, Corzine and Kennedy were back at street level and pushing tables together in the coffee shop to swap shop talk with area shop owners, mutually cowed by the economy but encouraged by bonding around this business hub.

"I worked in the private sector for a long time," Corzine told the scrunched together group. "You've got to survive these downdrafts. ...You've seen shrinking revenues as business people. I've seen shrinking revenues as governor."

Part of the big sell here - and Kennedy backed up the governor on this point - is a state tax credit program for urban transit hubs like this one.

"As it relates to small business," the governor added, "we have a program, Investment Jersey, which offers a $3,000 grant for each incremental new job."

There were inevitable impressed shrugs characteristic of photo ops with powerful men running for office, even those battling nine points behind the opposition. Of course, this is a solid Democratic town: 7,065 registered D's to 1,708 R's (out of 15,777 total voters), according to Clerk Jean Kuc.

Nothwithstanding the long odds, the Rahway Republican Committee is revved and in singular press release mode calling for the resignation of troubled freshman Councilman Bobby Akbar, a Democrat.

It's a local issue Republicans hope will keep Democrats in squirm mode as they turn it into a seam line that ultimately wounds Corzine.

The Board of Education suspended Akbar with pay from his elementary school teaching job last week, simultaneously refusing to release details about the suspension.

"A personnel matter," is what the board told the Star-Ledger concerning the status of the government employee. 

Rahway Republican Committee Chairman Pat Cassio wants Akbar gone.

"Mayor Kennedy has never hesitated in the past when he called on former Republican Councilman Frank Janusz to resign over minor and frivolous allegations that were never proven to be true, yet now (when) it's a Democrat in serious trouble the mayor won't act saying this week, 'unless a crime has been committed,'" said Cassio.

According to the Ledger, Akbar on June 10th pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace rather than contesting assault charges in a trial. There's more, too, but that's what the School Board won't discuss.

"He has to take care of the issue with the School Board first," Kennedy told PolitickerNJ.com when asked today if Akbar should resign.

A Steve Lonegan supporter in the GOP primary who famously stood in his Rahway driveway to endorse Lonegan on the same day Christie rolled out the endorsement of former Gov. Thomas Kean at the Bernardsville Inn, union carpenter Cassio describes himself as enthusiastically on board the Christie team.

"I like what the plan is," he said. "We want to win and we want to kick their butts. I would say 80% of Lonegan's people are on board with Christie. The 20% who are not I have complete respect for. I'm the Republican chairman here, so I can't pick and choose who the gubernatorial candidate is. Having said that, I think Chris Christie is a good candidate."

With Cassio's help, Lonegan edged Christie in the GOP gubernatorial primary in Rahway: 227 to 221 votes, Kuc said.

Low turnout? Yes, says Kuc.

But maybe the more telling stat was the low voter output for Corzine, who earned a total of 580 votes in the primary here against what amounted to token opposition.

In his sitdown with business leaders in the uplifted infrastructue of the old factory burgh, Corzine was sure to hit some buzzwords in an effort to project outward to voters who aren't necessarily rank-and-file Democrats.

For one, in answer to a question about how he might be able to expedite building permits, he gave a self-serving shoutout to rival Chris Daggett, an independent candidate for governor who just yesterday landed the Sierra Club endorsement ahead of a flummoxed Corzine.

"Chris Daggett came in to help find ways to create permit efficiency," the governor told the circle of business leaders, referring to Daggett's chairmanship of a commission to hone the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

"We want to rebuild in places like Rahway as opposed to cornfields," the governor added in what sounded like a shore-up on the heels of yesterday's Sierra Club diss. "A lot of permitting depends on what the community wants in order to go forward."

Then he gave a nod to his onetime rival for the U.S. Senate seat, Bob Franks, a Republican who Corzine invoked as a team player in assisting New Jersey's pharmaceutical industry development.

Who Was In Cellblock 2?

Some may well wonder about the prospects for thoroughness of any investigation of Democrat Councilman Bobby Akbar by the Rahway Police Department.

After all, the Rahway Chief of Police, John Rodger, also happens to be a Rahway Democrat Party official -- in addition to being the top cop in that City. You see, John Rodger is an official Democrat party committeeman in Rahway.  Check it out for yourself!  So is his wife, Dawn Rodger, who also doubles as a top official in the Rahway Police Department, with Internal affairs!  She is listed as the Community Relations Officer. 

In my opinion, Mr. Magoo could see that there is at least the the appearance of a serious conflict of interest in having a Police Department under the complete control of those two, somehow seriously investigating a fellow Democrat party official.

And, in addition to being a Democrat member of the City Council, Mr. Bobby Akbar is also a fellow Democrat Committeeman, right along with his political pals, John and Dawn.

They all get together and work very closely on Democrat political party strategy within the City.

How is that for close knit?

When Mr. Akbar previously got in trouble, earlier in the year, that public altercation was resolved with barely a public ripple. Back in late February, Mr. Akbar, who is married, was involved in some sort of domestic "eruption" involving another female teacher.

But because he was charged with a domestic disturbance, there was a tight lid put on what information could be made public.  Basically, none!  No police report has ever been made publicly available.

So, a few months later (in June), Akbar pled guilty to a reduced "disorderly offense" -- disturbing the peace -- in Clark Municipal court, where the case was sent to eliminate the court conflict, and the matter just "went away." Akbar remained a teacher and a City Councilman. The other party, however, somehow lost her job along the way, which has not publicly explained.

The amazing thing is that, reportedly, the entire incident was caught on video tape by undercover police staked out on another matter. But that has never been released to the public either. No police report has ever been released, even though a large number of police (possibly seven?) reported to the scene.

Gee, wouldn't you think that Mayor Jim Kennedy of Rahway, Jim McGreevey’s former best friend, and a lobbyist, would have at least asked Governor Corzine to please have the Attorney General’s Office, or the County Prosecutor independently investigate this latest Akbar incident?

Others might be wondering if perhaps there may be a basis for a thorough an investigation of how the entire matter, including both incidents, have been handled locally. Can anyone say, Zulima Farber?

At least one published report has indicated the latest Akbar incident may have involved sending an improper text message to a student. Akbar is a 5th grade teacher in the Rahway school system, and whatever the incident was, it led to his suspension by the School Board.

But Akbar is not talking, the police are not talking, the Mayor is not talking, and even the members of the Rahway school board (which otherwise saw fit to suspend Akbar from his 5th grade teaching position over the matter) are not publicly citing any of the "facts" about what Akbar did either. They are calling it a "personnel matter."

So far, therefore, this appears to have all the earmarks of one of those classic street scenes where the police are working to disburse a crowd.

"All right, everyone go home! There is nothing to see here."

by Trochilus

Theres a conflict of interest?

Gee...do you really think that just because the two polictical hacks the Cheif and wife (head of internal affairs) their could possibly be a conflict of interest?

Gee I never really thought of that!

Closed System

Just1Man 08/19/09 11:17 am:

Heh. It does make it a little tough for anyone in the City of Rahway to believe that their police department refrains from playing politics, no?

Quick, someone name me another town or city in New Jersey where the Chief of Police and his wife are both on the political committee of a political party?

by Trochilus

Move along! Nothing to see . . .

Here's another fun fact.The public website of the Rahway School Board indicates they retain Weiner Lesniak as their General Counsel, and Scarinci & Hollenbeck for Labor Relations.  Nothing partisan there, huh?

by Trochilus

Wake-Up Call

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