David Della Donna

Annette Quijano will resign her post as Assistant Counsel to Gov. Jon Corzine to take her seat in the State Assembly. She won a special election convention last night to replace Neil Cohen in the 20th district.  Quijano's election further reduces the number of minorities on the Governor's senior staff: he has not had an African American Deputy Chief of Staff since Jeanine LaRue left to take a job at Rutgers, and has not had a Latino Deputy Chief of Staff since Javier Inclan, who had replaced LaRue, resigned after testifying in the corruption trial of former Guttenberg Mayor David Della Donna.

At what point should Jon Corzine comment on the testimony of his Deputy Chief of Staff, Javier Inclan, in the federal corruption trial of Guttenberg Mayor David Della Donna? Just after winning election as Governor in 2005, Corzine promised members of his administration would face "intensive vetting and should be prepared to serve an administration with 'zero tolerance' for placing private interests above the public good."

“Hold me accountable,” he told the people of New Jersey in his inaugural address in January 2006.

Inclan, the former Executive Director of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, testified that as Treasurer of the Guttenberg Democrats, he accepted an envelope which he believed to be a cash contribution from a local bar owner,

Less then a week after his arrest on federal corruption charges, Guttenberg Mayor David Delle Donna attended a fundraiser for the Hudson County Democratic Organization. Sources say that Della Donna, who is accused of diverting cash campaign contributions for personal expenses, and of allegedly extorting money from a local bar owner in exchange for helping him with issues involving the local police, obtaining a variance, and dealing with tickets for improper garbage disposal.