Joe Ferriero

The federal corruption trial of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, above, is scheduled to begin on Thursday.

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero has no plans to follow his co-defendant’s lead and plead guilty to corruption charges, according to his attorney, Joseph Hayden.

“Joe Ferriero asked for a speedy trial and wants to go forward,” said Hayden.

Hayden would not say whether the Oury indictment would change anything about the way he will proceed in defending Ferriero.

“I decline to speculate as to how it will affect the dynamics of the trial, and I’ll probably address it in my opening statement,” he said.

Ferriero’s trial is set to begin on Thursday.  He is charged with concealing an interest in a grant writing firm and using his political clout to steer government grants to the firm’s clients.   

GOP LG candidate Kim Guadagno (center) attends the Indian Independence Day march in Edison on Sunday.

Seeking to portray their opponent as a hapless enabler of corruption who threw a lot of money into the accounts of officials now either fighting in federal courtrooms or headed for a jail cell, Team Christie today issued a release branding Gov. Jon Corzine as the "number one financer of corrupt politicians and county bosses in New Jersey."

Going back to 1998 and Corzine's initial foray into state politics, the Christie campaign in their latest blast targets their rapid-ascent political rival's and his family's donations totaling $441,600 to former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) and former Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) Chairman Joe Ferriero.

A federal court earlier this year found Coniglio guilty of corruption. He's now awaiting sentencing.

Ferriero faces his own corruption trial this fall.  

While he could have used his vast personal fortune to stand outside and aggressively reform the system, Wall Street banker turned U.S. Senator and later governor instead cocooned himself into it, said Christie's running mate, Sheriff Kim Guadagno.

Former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero’s defense attorney filed a motion in federal court today to dismiss the indictment against him.  

Joseph Hayden, who represents Ferriero, said that they’re seeking to dismiss the case based on an “unprecedented expansion of the mail fraud statute.”

Ferriero was indicted in September along with Dennis Oury, the former counsel of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, on eight corruption counts, seven of which were for mail fraud.  He allegedly used his position to steer business to a grants writing firm he and Oury held a stake in, along with Leonard Kaiser, a third partner who was not indicted.  

No hearing date has been set.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) with former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero in 2007. Weinberg says she's willing to give Ferriero's successor, Michael Kasparian, a chance to succeed.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) said that she’s taking a wait and see approach on whether newly elected Bergen County Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian’s selection of Joe Ariyan as the party’s general counsel – his first and so far only appointment – sets a unifying tone for the party.

“I am waiting to see what’s going to happen with all the other appointments.  I’m waiting to see when he’s going to convene the meetings of elected officials and the executive board.  And I’m waiting to see what kind of bylaws changes Mr. Ariyan is interested in leading us toward.  Then I’ll make judgment,” she said.

Weinberg heads up a reform faction that has traditionally feuded with party leadership under indicted former Chairman Joe Ferriero, who let Kasparian, his preferred successor, inherit his post last month. 

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn)

HACKENSACK - New Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) Chairman Michael Kasparian said he would support U.S. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) should Rothman at some time in the future see an opportunity to pursue a run for a vacant U.S. Senate seat. 

"If he ever ran for Senate, he would have my support," Kasparian told PolitickerNJ.com. "I am all about Bergen."

The remark came to a question within the context of some statewide intra-party wrangling that goes back to last year's U.S. Senate primary.

When then-BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero appeared poised to endorse U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights), Rothman moved quickly.

Rather than conspiring with South Jersey to topple U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park), Rothman believed the Bergen County party chairman should refrain from endorsing until a vacancy occured. 

BCDO Chairman Michael Kasparian

HACKENSACK - Paramus-based developer Michael Kasparian of Hohokus became the new chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) tonight with well over 500 county committee votes cast in his favor at a special convention held in the Hackensack Middle School.

In a process supervised by BCDO attorney Joseph Mariniello, Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney nominated Kasparian, and Kasparian ran unopposed.  

HACKENSACK - Although the Englewood Democratic Municipal Committee last night passed a resolution opposing the candidacy of Paramus-based developer Michael Kasparian for chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO), it remains unlikely Kasparian’s opponents will be able to unseat him at a special party convention at 4:30 p.m.

Indeed, it’s a question mark at this point whether they’ll even try.

“I’m not going to put my name in, I’m not running,” said local labor leader Richard “Buzzy” Dressel, who had originally hoped to be the anti-Kasparian candidate in the name of striking a blow against  Kasparian ally and outgoing BCDO Chairman Joe Ferriero.

Ferriero’s leaving to fight federal corruption charges, and Dressel’s convinced he’s rigged the game at this afternoon’s convention, so why participate.

Richard "Buzzy" Dressel

HACKENSACK - Local labor leader Richard "Buzzy" Dressel threw himself back into the bullring today for the chairmanship of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO).

"In light of the fact that Ferriero cancelled tonight’s long awaited Executive Committee meeting, I cannot in good faith walk away," said Dressel. "This is just another example of how the 'process' is so screwed up.  You have a chairman that spoke of his resignation last week, then called for a meeting this evening, fired the legal counsel that the party put in when Oury and Ferrireo were indicted, and then cancelled tonight’s meeting. 

"As I understand the 'rules,' the meeting tonight was to vote on having the county convention next week," Dressel added. "Now, the committee does not vote, and an indicted, resigning chairman merely puts a convention in place to vote in his puppet.  He is starting to make Saddam Hussein look like a benevolent dictator."

He'll face party fundraiser Michael Kasparian, the choice of former Chairman Joe Ferriero, who has substantial party support in the executive committee from the likes of County Executive Dennis McNerney and Sheriff Leo McGuire.

News tonight from Bergen County that labor leader Richard "Buzzy" Dressel has retreated from his bid to succeed indicted Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) Chairman Joe Ferriero came as no surprise to leaders on both sides of a fight who know Dressel can't win.

Dressel's intentions followed reports that members of a county committee built by Ferriero favor his hand-picked successor, Democratic Party fundraiser Michael Kasparian, in the lead-up to a Jan. 22 convention.

When party leaders tried to offer state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) as a compromise to the Kasparian forces on the one side and Dressel and key ally state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) on the other, Dressel backed down.

But Ferriero's people dug in with Kasparian, whose candidacy galled Weinberg's forces as the outgoing party boss personally called supporters seeking Kasparian support using the latter's office telephone.

U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fairlawn) wants state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) to serve as Bergen County Democratic Organization interim chairman.

HACKENSACK – The Bergen reformer’s fear is someone disgraced or incarcerated will be running the party, giving orders via cellphone or BlackBerry to drones working in the service of a political patronage system that grinds forward unchanged even as the feds expose and prosecute the upper eschelons. 

But it’s also an election year – for governor, no less – and in that all important, 70-community county of Bergen, which Democrats or Republicans must win in order win it all in 2009 – tampering with the Democratic Party infrastructure and leaving it depleted or less than muscular could give the GOP that one opportunity they’re seeking. 

Indeed, even as Joe Ferriero wrote his letter of resignation as chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO), former U.S. Attroney Chris Christie – the man whose office last year indicted Ferriero on federal corruption charges – filed his papers to run for governor against Democrat Jon Corzine, setting up that most dramatic contrast of party plot lines, which the GOP wants to translate into crumbling utterly the Dems’ most vulnerable fault line here in Bergen.