Joe Coniglio

Menendez endorses Clinton, Assembly passes watered down dual office holding ban, Feds subpoena Coniglio documents, Assembly votes to use sales tax money for property tax relief, Corzine wants Doria for education commissioner, Jun Choi fails to win control of Edison Democratic Party, Clinton and Giuliani top NJ poll.

CONIGLIO TO INTRODUCE LEGISLATION REQUIRING IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION OF SOIL CONTAMINATION 

            PARAMUS – Senator Joseph Coniglio today vowed to introduce legislation that would require immediate notification of soil contamination at public schools or other public property.

            “One lesson we can learn from the situation at West Brook Middle School is that once soil or water contamination is identified, we can’t just sit back and wait for it to go away on its own,” said Senator Coniglio, D-Paramus. “I am making the enactment of this legislation a top priority, because the health of children is at stake. Parents, teachers and other workers deserve to receive immediate notification of any dangers to their health and safety.”

The Record's story this morning on the federal probe of legislators who received some personal benefit from state budget items suggests that only Democrats are being targeted.  According to The Record, there are some similarities between State Senator Joseph Coniglio and Assemblyman Brian Stack, both Democrats who have received subpoenas, and two Republican legislators who have not: State Senator Robert Singer and Assemblyman David Wolfe.

Former Assemblyman Matthew Ahearn says he will not seek the Democratic nomination for State Senate in the 38th district.  Ahearn, who switched from Democrat to the Green Party in 2003, had been mulling a Senate bid since federal prosecutors served State Sen. Joseph Coniglio with a subpoena last month in connection to a probe of legislators receiving an alleged personal benefit from state budget items.

Coniglio, a two-term Paramus Democrat, received $5,500-a-month as a plumbing consultant for Hackensack University Medical Center, who later received over $1 million in state grants.

In an open letter, Ahearn said that he ultimately decided against a Senate bid because of his own relationship with Coniglio.

"Whatever his legal problems are at this time and his own willingness to let the Chairman call the shots on matters of Senatorial courtesy and reform bills, I genuinely like the man and his wife on a personal level," Ahearn wrote.  "He took me door to door with him in 2001 and taught me a great deal about campaigns. Senator Coniglio quietly appreciated my independence from the Chairman while making it clear it was not the best political move in the world, not in the short term at least. He never disrespected me for my leave of absence from the party to do what I felt was right at the time by running a race to make pay to play in government an issue the voters understood better."

Former Assemblyman Matthew Ahearn may challenge State Sen. Joseph Coniglio in the Democratic primary, and says he has circulated petitions to run in the June primary. Coniglio was served with a federal subpoena last month as part of an investigation of state legislators who receive a personal financial benefit from budget items they advocate. Coniglio was a $5,500-a-month plumbing consultant to the Hackensack University Medical Center, which received over $1 million in state funds.