Jamel Holley

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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.  

Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier ruled yesterday in favor of Roselle Council President Jamel Holley's admission into a pretrial intervention program (PTI), rejecting the argument for criminal precedings pursued by the state Attorney General's Office, which this summer charged Holley with third-degree violation of the absentee voting law.

"He was not familiar with the absentee voting system, and apparently,generally, the absentee voter voted for the candidate of their choice in this Democratic Primary," Billmeir said in his ruling at Mercer County Courthouse in Trenton. "The voter signed the certification, and Mr. Holley, being not educated in this, then filled out an envelope giving the name and address of the absentee voter, and then as the bearer, brought these results, sometimes directly from the voter, sometimes from a third party."

The state Attorney General's Office today "charged by accusation" Roselle Borough Council President Jamel Holley with illegally filling out a portion of the absentee ballots of voters in the 2006 Democratic primary for Borough Council, according to Attorney General Anne Milgram.

Holley, 29, of Roselle, allegedly violated the state’s absentee voting law, a third-degree crime, said Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni.

The council president, a political protege of former Assemblyman Neil Cohen and a foe of Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith, waived his right to be indicted by a grand jury and agreed to be charged by accusation. The accusation was entered before Superior Court Judge Robert Billmeier in Mercer County, according to the AG's Office.

The accusation charges that Holley "tampered with absentee ballots by completing portions of the absentee ballots of at least 20 voters, contrary to the absentee voting law, which seeks to ensure the secrecy of balloting and prevent any improper influencing of voters. The charge is the result of an investigation by the New Jersey State Police Official Corruption Bureau."

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith

Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith needed this one, and so did the Union County Democratic Organization.
 
Those two mutually exclusive desires added up to one thing: a war.
 
Ever since former Assemblyman Neil Cohen's (D-Roselle) career went belly up amid charges of keeping child porn on his computer, the battle lines for local party control intensified here in his town, which, depending on your perspective, is either a buffer for Westfield against the danger-zone of Elizabeth or a buffer for Elizabeth against the whitebread excesses of Cranford and Westfield.
 
A mild-mannered wonk in Trenton, Cohen could get tough in his hometown as head of the local party. He wasn't beyond delivering full-blown, profanity-laced public dress-downs to recalcitrant committee members as he dealt with the ongoing headache of Smith, a charismatic independent Democrat, originally from Jersey City, who built his name as head of a thriving local basketball league before seeking his first term as mayor in 2003.
 
Smith and Cohen could grudgingly come together to beat on Republicans in presidential or gubernatorial general elections, but mostly they embroiled themselves in a Roselle battle-royale with themselves as chief antagonists.

Assembly Deputy Speaker Neil Cohen resigned after state officials found child pornography on his office computer
Union County Democrats will meet next Tuesday at a special convention to elect the replacement for former Assemblyman Neil Cohen, who resigned his seat late last month after child pornography was allegedly found on one of his legislative office computers.

The replacement will be selected by the members of the county’s Democratic committee from the four towns that comprise Legislative District 20: Roselle, Elizabeth, Union Township and Kenilworth. But the endorsement by the district’s other two legislators – Assemblyman/Democratic State Chairman Joe Cryan and State Sen. Ray Lesniak -- will undoubtedly weigh heavily on the committee’s decision.

Among the local political players said to be interested in the post are Roselle Councilwoman Cecelia Dallis-Ricks; Union County Freeholder Director Angel Estrada; Elizabeth Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste; Elizabeth Councilman Manny Grova; Roselle Councilman and former Cohen Chief-of-Staff Jamel Holley and Roselle Mayor Garrett Smith, who has butted heads with party leaders in the past.