Paybacks are a bitch

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the third district, today asked state Attorney General Anne Milgram to “initiate a thorough criminal review” of Governor Jon Corzine’s $15,000 gift to Rocco Riccio, the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend and the President of the state’s largest public employees union.  Adler wants to know if any laws were broken.

Adler’s call comes fourteen months after Corzine told a Gannett New Jersey editorial board that he would not pick Adler as his Attorney General: “John Adler will not be my attorney general. We will pick the very best individual, with the skills to make sure we carry out an executive order to clean up politics in this state." – Jon Corzine, speaking at a Gannett New Jersey debate (Tamari, Asbury Park Press, 10/12/05)

From The Inside Edge, October 15, 2005: “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler was understandably furious on Wednesday when he read that Jon Corzine had summarily rejected him as a candidate for state Attorney General because of his connection to the Camden County Democratic machine. Corzine's comments also suggested that Adler, a Harvard graduate and possible 2008 U.S. Senate candidate, might not be qualified for the post. Sources say that the recipient of Adler's fury was his old neighbor, Susan Bass Levin, the former Cherry Hill Mayor and state Community Affairs Commissioner who now holds a senior staff position in the Corzine campaign. That evening, Corzine issued a statement meant to appease the Camden County Senator, saying that Adler is ‘eminently qualified’ to be Attorney General, despite his comments of the previous day.”