Joe Vas

Chairman Joe Spicuzzo congratulates his Distrct 19 ticket: Aassemblyman John Wisniewski, left, and South Amboy Mayor John T. O'Leary

EDISON – One Perth Amboy mayor received homage, a second stands accused of state corruption charges and stayed away, and a third was in the house tonight here at the Pines Manor at the Middlesex County Democratic Organization’s convention. 

“He’s disappeared,” Chairman Joe Spicuzzo said of former Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas, indicted last week on bid-rigging and theft charges. “I’ve tried calling him but haven’t heard from him. He must be with his lawyer.” 

Ousted as mayor last year by Wilda Diaz, Vas had originally intended to pursue his assembly seat again at a special March 25th convention, but backed down after absorbing the state charges last Wednesday.

Perth Amboy Mayor WIlda Diaz works the room at her foreclosure conference on Friday.

PERTH AMBOY – The rivers run into each other there and disgorge urb and burb remnants alike into the bay.

In the middle of a global economic crisis, in the middle of a local budget crisis, in the middle of state corruption charges leveled against her predecessor, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz stands in the parish center of Our Lady of Fatima Church in front of a crowd of 400 residents Friday night and urges them to work with government to keep their homes. 

“Tell your friends not to be embarrassed if you can’t pay your mortgage,” she says, in English and Spanish. “If you wait two or three months, the situation will only be much worse.”

The bank teller turned bank manager turned first year mayor has welcomed several guests to speak, including representatives from Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Rep. Albio Sires (D-West New York). 

Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) prepares for Gov. Jon Corzine's budget speech at the Statehouse on Tuesday.

On hearing the news today of Assemblyman Joe Vas’s (D-Perth Amboy) arrest on bid-rigging charges, Democratic Party players surrounding what was an apparent contest for Vas’s 19th District Assembly seat reacted with little shock - and a mixture of grief and celebration.

"This is a sad day for Assemblyman Vas and his family, and an equally sad day for the people in 19th Legislative District," said Vas's running mate, Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville). "Any time that a public official is involved in even an allegation of official misconduct, it puts a strain on the public trust. I hope the process undertaken today by the Attorney General’s Office moves forward as fairly and efficiently as possible." 

Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac, whose town concentrates the largest number of voters in the 19th, said Vas can write off trying to reclaim his 19th District Assembly seat.

Assemblyman Joe Vas’s (D-Perth Amboy) indictment today on state corruption charges sparked the 19th District to action, as the county chairmen from both parties responded less than two weeks in front of their respective conventions.

Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joe Spicuzzo said he wants to talk to Vas, charged with stealing funds from the City of Perth Amboy while he was mayor, before proceeding with his party’s convention scheduled for March 25 at the Forge.

“It depends on what Joe wants to do,” said Spicuzzo. “I’m sure he’s thinking about not running. I’m going to talk to him first thing tomorrow morning and we’ll see where he stands.”

If Democratic leaders follow the precedent set when Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett were arrested in 2007, there will be a call for Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) to resign his seat.  That ends the Middlesex County Democratic convention fight between Vas and South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary. 

DIEGNAN/STENDER/VAS/JASEY BILL TO REQUIRE LENDERS TO DETAIL PROGRAMS TO STEM FORECLOSURE RELEASED BY ASSEMBLY PANEL

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assembly members Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., Linda Stender, Joseph Vas and Mila M. Jasey to require lenders to give homeowners information about programs to cure defaults before initiating a foreclosure proceeding was released today by an Assembly committee.

The bill (A-3767) was released 5-0-1 by the Assembly Financial Institutions Committee and now goes to the Assembly speaker, who decides if and when to post it for a floor vote.

“Having the right information at the right time can keep people in their homes,” said Diegnan (D-Middlesex). “Lenders should be working with homeowners to cure defaults before it’s too late and the damage has been done.”

Assemblyman Joe Vas (D-Perth Amboy)

In any political weather, the name “Vas” on a campaign sign would inspire a particular dynamism, as in “you go” in the Spanish familiar form - and so the name went for 18 years as the formidable Joe Vas, Perth Amboy’s first Puerto Rican mayor, ran the waterfront town.

And yet now, nearly a year after he lost reelection locally, the danger for Assemblyman Joe Vas – same man, different title at stake - may be the inclination among a majority of committee people in this scrunch of blue collar and maritime Middlesex towns called the 19th District, to simply say “scram.”

Battered, Vas nevertheless doesn’t think it’s going to happen, and even appeared indomitable today, moments before heading into a caucus meeting of the Assembly Democrats, where he serves as deputy majority leader.

“Ask any committee member about me – not someone on the outside looking in and trying to rattle the cage – ask them about me and my district office,” he said.

Convinced the committee will see it his way at a party convention on March 25th at the Forge, Vas intends to stare down a cross-river challenge from South Amboy Mayor John T. O’Leary. Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) will also screen for one of two seats, but by all accounts, the powerful chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee should have little problem securing party support.

The same can’t be said of Vas – who’s had his fights, Barry Adler two years ago and Arlene Friscia before that, not to mention his first run for mayor when he came in as the underdog – who may yet be in his toughest.

The fate of Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone (D-Bayonne) is in the hands of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy and State Sen. Sandra Cunningham.

Twelve New Jersey legislators, all from districts that are not especially competitive in general election contests, face potential obstacles in their bid to win party support for another term.

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