David Wald

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.

Some Democrats may wish Attorney General Anne Milgram would take the summer off, especially since it's an election year.  Instead, Milgram has been going after Democrats in Essex, Middlesex and Union counties.

The Star-Ledger reported tonight that investigators from Milgram's office seized a computer last week from the office of the Essex County Superintendent of Elections in connection to their indictment of Antonio Santana, a volunteer on the 2007 campaign of State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark).  Santana is accused of changing an absentee ballot in Ruiz's favor - a tactic that had no effect on the final results of the election.  But an investigation into the Ruiz campaign is an annoyance to her political mentor, Newark Democratic leader Stephen Adubato, and to Essex County, where Ruiz works as Deputy Chief of Staff to the County Executive. 

Milgram has also won an indictment against Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), and has been conducting a probe of Union County Democratic Chair Charlotte DeFilippo.  State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) and Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan have formed a legal defense fund to help pay for DeFilippo's lawyers.

Lesniak and State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden), both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are battling with Milgram over her pick to run the state Division of Civil Rights, Chinh Le.  Lesniak and Scutari sent a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine complaining that Le is not licensed to practice law in New Jersey, according to a Star-Ledger report

UnionCountyDems.org

Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo

Some prominent Democrats have set up a trust to pay the legal expenses of Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo, who is under investigation by the State Attorney General's Office.

State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth), Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) and Monmouth County Democratic Chairman Victor Scudiery are organizing and administering the fund, according to two sources.

In November, 2007, The Star-Ledger reported that the Attorney General's office subpoenaed documents relating to DeFilippo's "public and private business dealings" - including documents from the Union County Improvement Authority, which she heads; information on her duties as a legislative aide to former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who has since been indicted on child pornography charges; documents relating to the Union County Democrats' involvement in the 2006 Roselle primary; and a client list a financial records from Camelot Title Agency, in which DeFilippo and Cryan hold minority stakes.

Sources say that the Department of Law and Public Safety is not expected to file criminal charges against Jeff Pillets, a Pulitzer-nominated investigative reporter at The Record, after reviewing a report from the Department of Environmental Protection that Pillets removed public documents.  David Wald, a spokesman for Attorney General Anne Milgram, had no comment on the Pillets matter.  Written statements from Elaine Makatura, a spokesman for DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, and Pillets, are essentially the same -- except on one point: the DEP says Pillets initially denied having the missing files, while Pillets says he was a model of cooperation.

The following is a written statement from Makatura, send to PolitickerNJ.com yesterday and today:

Sources say that Jeff Pillets, a Pulitzer Prize nominated investigative reporter for The Record, is being investigated by the New Jersey State Police for allegedly swiping some documents from the Department of Environmental Protection.  The alleged theft, which has attracted considerable buzz within political and media circles today, happened while Pillets was reviewing files related to an Open Public Records Act request.  Sources say that Pillets later returned the files and was questioned by law enforcement officials.

At the request of the Attorney General's office, PoliticsNJ.com has removed an advertisement publicizing the Department of Law and Public Safety's "Click it or Ticket" campaign. In an e-mail sent to this website earlier this afternoon, David Wald, a spokesman for Zulima Farber, said: "Please take down the click-it-or-ticket link You know no one here ever asked for or authorized the link. Thanks."

PoliticsNJ.com had run this ad at no charge as a public service announcement. This website acknowledges not being asked to do so by the Attorney General's office, and we apologize for any embarrassment our publicizing of the Click it or Ticket campaign may have caused the Attorney General.

Editor's Note: According to the Attorney General's Office, the state spent $272,000 on radio, billboard and bus advertising for the Click it or Ticket in 2005 -- paid for by a federal grant. There was no advertising budget for this campaign in 2006; radio ads were paid for by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There were years when political junkies, including the one who writes this column, would stop somewhere late Saturday night to buy the Sunday Star-Ledger, just for the privilege of reading David Wald's column on New Jersey politics. From 1978 to 2000, his column was the epicenter of insider news in this state. Wald was unspinnable, and a low tolerance for the spreading of male cow manure. So respectfully, Wald's fans -- which certainly includes this writer --who have watched him cover six gubernatorial campaigns and fourteen Attorneys General (including three who became gubernatorial candidates) -- have to wonder how Wald, now serving as the spokesman for the state Attorney General, would have written his stories on the embattled Zulima Farber.

Interesting footnote: As Communications Director for U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, Wald worked for Darius Goore, the son of Farber's live-in boyfriend, who was Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of communications.

David Wald, the former Star-Ledger political reporter and columnist, is headed to the Department of Law and Public Safety, where he will head up the communications operation for Attorney General Zulima Farber. Wald covered New Jersey politics for the Star-Ledger from 1978 until 2000, when he joined the Jon Corzine for Senate campaign. He spent five years in Corzine's Newark Senate office.