Alfred Steele

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts said today that he has spoken to the two Democratic legislators who were arrested yesterday on bribery charges.  Roberts said that effective immediately, Hackett will step down as Chairman of the Assembly State Government Committee and Steele will give up his post as Assembly Deputy Speaker.  Both will also give up their committee assignments.

Bill Baroni wants Gov. Corzine to call a special legislative session next week to tackle ethics reformNews that two of his colleagues in the Assembly - among others - had been indicted on corruption charges in federal court Thursday sounded like a leaden cymbal clash in the lead up to festivities at the Democratic State Conference at Bally’s in Atlantic City.

But State Democratic Chairman Assemblyman Joseph Cryan gave no indication he believes the party, as in the one he belongs to, shouldn’t go on, even as he acknowledged that the state needs stronger ethics reforms.

Meanwhile, a Republican outfit ridiculed for months as the most obvious institutional wreckage left over from a sagging Bush presidency, found an opening.

Paul Moriarty needs to decide if he wants to be an Assemblyman or the Mayor of Washington Township, says his Republican opponent, Agnes Gardiner. 

Moriarty was elected Mayor in 2004 and to the State Assembly in 2005.  While a new law bans future dual officeholders, Moriarty can take advantage of a grandfather clause that would allow him to hold both offices for as long as he wants, or can.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announces criminal charges against 11 public officials, including two legislators
The ironic presence of a framed portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware was not lost on two courtroom artists crouched over their easel with erasers and pastels Thursday. In their rendering, they took some license in centering the framed and famed heroic portrait of 12 men braving the elements over the heads of the 12 men in the docket, who crowded together, resembled another band of ragtag shipmates.

The trouble was they weren’t crossing the Delaware, but stranded this side of the river in handcuffs and leg-irons in Trenton’s Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building, in the uncomfortable position of fighting off U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni acknowledged the charges of either conspiracy to extort corrupt payments or attempting to extort corrupt payments that Christie’s office brought against the men - 11 of them elected or former elected officials from Pleasantville to Passaic, among them dual-officeholder Mims Hackett, an Assemblyman and the Mayor of Orange, Assembly Deputy Speaker (and Passaic County Undersheriff Alfred Steele), and Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera.

New Jersey’s legislative leadership expressed frustration with the arrests of Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, but Senate President Richard Codey, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce stopped short of calling for the resignations of the two legislators accused of accepting bribes.

But several legislators, including State Sen. Ellen Karcher, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, and Assemblyman Michael Panter -- all Democrats -- said that Steele and Hackett should resign.

Today's arrests could be the first real test of Assemblyman Michael Panter's legislation (A-20), which requires mandatory prison sentences and pension forfeiture for any public officials convicted of corruption.  Governor Jon "Hold Me Accountable" Corzine signed the bill on March 16th of this year and it took effect on April 15th.  Criminal complaints filed today by the U.S. Attorney could mean that Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, Passaic Councilman Marcellus Jackson, and Keith Reid, the Chief of Staff to the Newark City Council President, would lose their pensions if convicted of bribery.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie continues his war on corruptionU.S. Attorney Christopher Christie today announced indictments against eleven current and former public officials on bribery charges, including Assembly Deputy Speaker Alfred Steele, Assemby State Government Committee Chairman (and Orange Mayor) Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, and Pete Callaway, a member of a prominent and controversial Atlantic County political family.

Four legislators have been indicted this year on federal corruption charges, and a fifth has been told he is the target of a federal probe.

CHARGED: State Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden); State Sen. Sharpe James (D-Essex); Assemblyman Alfred Steele (D-Passaic); Assemblyman Mims Hackett (D-Essex).

TARGETED: State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Bergen)

SUBPOENAED: State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union); Assemblyman Robert Gordon (D-Bergen); Assemblywoman Joan Voss (D-Bergen); Assemblyman and Union City Mayor Brian Stack (D-Hudson)

UNCLEAR: U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez

The Star-Ledger's Jeff Whelan lists the amounts each of the eleven public officials arrested are accused of taking in bribes:

"The officials are accused of accepting the following amounts, according to sources, who requested anonymity:

James Pressley - $32,000
Jayson Adams - $25,000
Marcellus Jackson - $16,500
Rafael Velez - $14,000
Rev. Alfred E. Steele - $14,000
Maurice "Pete" Callaway - $13,000
Jonathon Soto - $12,500
Keith Reid - $10,000
Mims Hackett, Jr. - $5,000
Samuel Rivera - $5,000
James McCormick- $3,500

Paterson Board of Education member Chauncey Brown III, the Republican candidate for State Assembly in the 35th district, says that he's "just taken back in shock -- I'm totally caught off guard" by Rev. Alfred Steele's arrest today on bribery charges early this morning.

“Al Steele’s a great guy. Every person is innocent until proven guilty, and my prayers are with his family," Brown told PoliticsNJ.com reporter Matt Friedman. "“It's unfortunate that this has happened, "It’s a tragic day right now for their families, and I think it would be premature for me to make remarks at this time.”