Anne Milgram

Attorney General Anne Milgram had already decided she would leave her post when Gov. Jon Corzine lost his bid for re-election.  She has been seeking jobs in Washington, D.C., where she lived when she worked on Corzine's U.S. Senate staff.  Her spokesman, David Wald, told PolitickerNJ.com yesterday denied reports that Milgram was headed to the U.S. Department of Justice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

It will be interesting to see what the new Republican governor does with Wald, who was dominate political reporter in the state from 1978 to 2000, when he left the Star-Ledger to join Corzine's campaign staff when he ran for the Senate.  Wald worked in Corzine's Senate office before taking the Attorney General's communications director after Corzine named Zulima Farber to the post after the 2005 election.

Gov.-elect Christopher Christie will also have to decide what to do with other former reporters who wound up getting jobs with Democratic governors in recent years.  Deborah Howlett, who was covering Corzine for the Star-Ledger when he hired her as Communications Director, is sure to be a goner.  Corzine demoted Howlett a few months ago, although she remains on the front office payroll.

Attorney General Anne Milgram plans to leave her post early next year, regardless of the outcome of the gubernatorial election, sources say.  If Gov. Jon Corzine wins re-election, Democratic sources say that Edward McBride, the Governor's Chief of Staff, will be on the short list to replace Milgram.  Other possible candidates include: Corzine's Chief Counsel, William Castner; Seton Hall Law School Dean Patrick Hobbs; Kris Kolluri, the Executive Director of the state Schools Development Authority; state Comptroller Matthew Boxer; Public Advocate Ronald Chen; and Glenn Grant, the Acting Administrative Director of the state courts.

Getty Images

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, above, is unhappy with the way Attorney General Anne Milgram handled the prosecution of a Democratic Councilman from their district

ELIZABETH - Union County party allies of Gov. Jon Corzine are leveling hard charges at someone who's used to doing the charging herself: Attorney General Anne Milgram, whose pursuit of a voter fraud case against Roselle Council President Jamel Holley this month resulted in a virtual dead end.

"Disappointment is an understatement," state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) said of Milgram, the Corzine administration's attorney general, for bringing charges against Holley in the first place.

Already feeling antagonized by the presence of corruption buster former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in the governor's race, Democratic Party operatives in at least two or three of their base voter-rich regions, including Unon, have for months felt dogged by Milgram, who indicted Holley by accusation on Aug. 27th with illegally filling out portions of fewer than 30 absentee ballots.

In a Thursday letter to the Union County Local Source, Lesniak and his legislative colleagues, Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union Twp.) and Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), ripped Milgram over what they see as her unjust targeting of Holley, which might have had ruinous consequences for a young man seen by his allies see as a comer in Union County Democratic Party politics.  

Less than a month after he and his wife were indicted on charges that they funneled legislative paychecks into a campaign account, Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) used his campaign account to pay his wife $6,000 to manage his bid for re-election.

According to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, Diane Chiappone was paid $6,000 on September 23 to serve as "campaign manager, coordinator, and record keeper."

State Attorney General Anne Milgram has alleged that Chiappone issued $7,532 in paychecks to a legislative aide, who in turn donated all of the money to the campaign along with $629 to a woman who they falsely claimed was a legislative aide.  The state charges that that more than half of the money -- $4,299 - was deposited for personal use, and that the rest was put into the campaign account but not reported to the Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The chairman of the Cumberland County Republicans has asked Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate an account Freeholder Director Lou Magazzu used to fund an unsuccessful race for a position in the National Association of Counties (NACo).

Cumberland County Republican Chairman Bob Greco alleges that a $10,000 loan given to Magazzu by the Cumberland County Democratic Organization, which he runs as chairman, violates the New Jersey Campaign Contributions and Expenditures Act because it funded funding a candidacy not related to the local party.

“My main concern revolves around the $10,000 ‘loan’ that the Cumberland County Democratic Organization isused to Mr. Magazzu on July 17, 2009,” wrote Greco.  “What were the terms and conditions of the loan provided by the Cumberland County Democratic Organization?  If Mr. Magazzu did not have a Political Action Committee (PAC), as he has admitted to not having, is the loan from the Cumberland Democratic Organization personal in nature?”  

The letter was copied to Evelyn Ford, the Election Law Enforcement Commission’s (ELEC) compliance officer.  

Republicans have hammered Magazzu over funding for his campaign for Second Vice President of NACo for months, issuing near-daily press releases about a controversy that they’ve dubbed “NACo-Gate.” 

Lambertville Police Director Bruce Cocuzza thinks that the 2005 traffic stop of then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie in his town was “no big deal.”  

New Jersey 101.5 FM reported this afternoon that Christie, now the Republican gubernatorial nominee, was stopped for speeding in what turned out to be an unregistered, uninsured vehicle, but was allowed to drive the car away.

"He was agitated at the prospect of his vehicle being towed away,” said Cocuzza, a Democrat who ran for Hunterdon County Sheriff in 2007, told PolitickerNJ.com’s Max Pizarro in a phone interview. "He was worried about his family being left on the side of the road with no vehicle."

Christie was accompanied by his wife, Mary Pat, his children and former U.S. Attorney staffer Michele Brown, who is Christie’s personal friend.

Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) will be charged by Attorney General Anne Milgram today, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation.  

It is unclear what the exact nature of the charge(s) will be, though Chiappone has been subpoenaed by Milgram's office over payroll records, and aides who worked for him in 2004 and 2005 have been questioned by investigators about payments they received.

The Jersey Journal reported in April that Chiappone was the target of a state investigation over whether he forged signatures on aides' paychecks and cashed them. 

Reached by phone, Chiappone said that he has no idea whether charges are going to be filed against him and has not heard from the Attorney General’s Office.

“I have no idea," he said.  "But let me check. Thank you for the call."

David Wald, a spokesman for the office, would not comment on the impending announcement.  

In a move widely seen as a way to keep his assembly seat, Chiappone resgined from the Bayonne City Council earlier this year.  His district-mate, Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, was charged with allegedly accepting bribes from a federal informant in last month's corruption bust.  

Chiappone said that he met with officials from Milgram's office yesterday, but that they did not indicate that he would be charged.

"This has been the ongoing investigation for the last four months. We had a meeting with them yesterday regarding some of the issues, and this is totally unexpected," he said.  "Quite honestly, we saw issues that might be ELEC related in regards to campaign reporting, but nothing that was criminal."

Chiappone could not say whether the charges would change his mind about running for reelection, though he suspected that it was a way to get him to quit.  His district, the 31st, is one of the most Democratic in the state.   

“It’s premature for me to say, but I think this is part of an effort to get me off the ballot.  I was thrown off the City Council April 13 – a week before the investigation started – and I’m notone of the good ole' boy," he said.  

A fifth campaign worker in connection with state Sen. Teresa Ruiz's (D-Newark) 2007 campaign has been indicted on charges related to messenger ballot fraud, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

Rocio Rivera, 49, of Lebanon Township, an employee of the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, was charged in a state grand jury indictment with election fraud (2nd degree), absentee ballot fraud (3rd degree), tampering with public records or information (3rd degree), and forgery (4th degree), according to Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni.

"We are continuing our investigation into allegations of fraud in the November 2007 general election in the 29th District," said Attorney General Anne Milgram. "We will prosecute anyone found to have tampered with the election and disenfranchised voters."

"This alleged voter fraud was brought to our office’s attention by the Essex County Superintendent of Elections," added Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow. "Voting is a fundamental privilege that all American citizens have a right to exercise without any form of meddling. The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office will not tolerate any attempt to manipulate elections of any kind."

Gov. Jon Corzine, right, in the Central Ward today with Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin.

NEWARK - Notwithstanding good spirits on the occasion of a new school opening in the Central Ward, an ongoing investigation by the state Attorney General's Office into possible North Ward voter fraud has Newark political operatives rocking on their heels with worry 83 days in front of Gov. Jon Corzine's Nov. 3rd showdown with Republican Chris Christie.

Corzine needs big numbers in Essex County, Democratic Party base country where Presidential candidate Barack Obama last year drove higher voter turnout than anywhere else in the state. The usually performing North Ward Democratic Organization plays a key role - especially in a low voter turnout election, but a cowed infrastructure could play havoc with Corzine's local results here.

Even as his campaign continues to target former U.S. Attorney Christie's phone conversations with former George W. Bush political mastermind Karl Rove and raises questions about Christie's political motivations while serving as U.S. Attorney, Corzine today said Attorney General Anne Milgram and her investigators will carry out their duties regardless of whether it hurts him politically.

"The state Attorney General pursues an even-handed administration of justice," Corzine told reporters. "The political commitments that people make, I think are independent of that."

Gov. Jon Corzine flanked by Attorney General Anne Milgram, East Orange Mayor Robert Bowser, Jose Cordero of the AG's Office, and Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo

EAST ORANGE - As New Jersey's media and political classes focus on corruption and former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie stands astride the backwash of arrests from nearly two weeks ago selling a message of change as the Republican candidate for governor, Gov. Jon Corzine redirected the public spotlight to violent crime and murders with numbers from the state Attorney General's Office that show a reduction in both.

“We are winning important battles in the war against violent criminals and gangs,” said Corzine, standing in Memorial Park with Mayor Robert Bowser; Attorney General Anne Milgram; Jose Cordero, New Jersey's first statewide director of gangs, guns and violent crime and the former police director of East Orange; Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo; Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow and a buttressing platoon of law enforcement officials.

“Thanks to the efforts of Attorney General (Anne) Milgram and the New Jersey law enforcement community, county task forces, police departments, and partner agencies, more than  4,200 offenders have been arrested for crimes including murder, assault with a firearm, armed robbery, and gun and drug trafficking," added the Democratic Party incumbent. "We know more work remains.  Even one act of violence against a New Jersey citizen is one too many.”