John Wisniewski

WISNIEWSKI & CRUZ-PEREZ BILL CREATING VETERANS’ ORAL HISTORY FOUNDATION NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski and Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez to establish a Veterans’ Oral History Foundation is now law. The bill (A-1707) was signed Sunday by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

The foundation will be devoted to sponsoring activities and raising money for the support and promotion of a veterans’ oral history program

“This will keep the memories and stories of New Jersey’s veterans alive for generations to come,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “Each generation has a different history to tell, and who better for to hear it from than the people that created that very history. The foundation will ensure the heroic efforts of veterans will never be forgotten.”

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EDISON - It was a parade march that kept coming, and for a brief time Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno walked at the head of it with some other dignitaries, before she circled back to the "Chris Christie" float, jumped aboard, and waved atop that perch as she rolled eastward on Oak Tree Road through the same crowd.

"You're double-dipping!" someone cried across the roil of Indian flag waving up and down the street and the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor laughed in return and rolled onward. 

Right behind her in this march honoring India's 63rd year of independence from Great Britain rolled the float of Peter Kothari, overhung with signs proclaiming him a "fearless leader who can deliver change that we can believe in" - and one half of the Republican ticket in the 19th District, a mosh of Middlesex towns anchored by Kothari's hometown of Woodbridge.

Kothari's doubled back himself a million times on this road that leads him again and again to 1990, when the real estate agent moved into his new office on Oak Tree in 1990 and somebody promptly smashed out the windows. 

When he went to the police department to complain, he says they shrugged in his face and said: "Call the insurance company."

Kothari did that - but he also reached back to his student organizing days in India to become more political. 

 

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WISNIEWSKI / SCHAER / SPENCER BILL SETTING 20-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR FORECLOSURES NOW LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assembly members John Wisniewski, Gary Schaer and L. Grace Spencer sponsored to codify a timeframe under which a lender can file a foreclosure action against a borrower who in is default is now law.

The law (A-3269) gives a mortgage lender 20 years from the date of a borrower’s default to bring a specific foreclosure action. It ensures that decades-old defaults – which under previous law could still be acted against – do not remain as clouds on a property’s title, which can grind a sale to a halt.

“Given the current volatility in the housing market, there is no room for ambiguity,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “A distinct path to a clear title can be the difference between allowing a property to be sold or requiring it to languish in legal purgatory.”

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WISNIEWSKI / SCHAER / SPENCER BILL SETTING 20-YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR FORECLOSURES CLOSER TO BECOMING LAW

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assembly members John Wisniewski, Gary Schaer and L. Grace Spencer sponsored to codify a timeframe under which a lender can file a foreclosure action against a borrower who in is default is closer to becoming law.

The bill (A-3269) would give a mortgage lender 20 years from the date of a borrower’s default to bring a specific foreclosure action. It would ensure that decades-old defaults – which under previous law could still be acted against – do not remain as clouds on a property’s title, which can grind a sale to a halt.

“Given the current volatility in the housing market, there is no room for ambiguity,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “A distinct path to a clear title can be the difference between allowing a property to be sold or requiring it to languish in legal purgatory.”

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Assemlyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) today called his running mate in the 19th Legislative District, South Amboy Mayor Jack O'Leary, and asked him to give serious thought to getting out of the Assembly race.

"I have asked Mayor O'Leary to carefully consider the viabilty of his candidacy in light of the current state of affairs in New Jersey," said Wisniewski, moments after calling O'Leary.

The mayor sounded unphased by his running mate's call.

"I'm still where I'm at," O'Leary told PolitickerNJ.com. "I'm still running." 

A replacement for indicted Perth Amboy Mayor/Assemblyman Joe Vas, O'Leary immediately ran into questions about his and his brother's insurance work for surrounding municipalities and his brother's establishment of the South Amboy Democratic Club to allegedly solicit contributions from people doing business in South Amboy.

O'Leary has consistently said he has done nothing wrong.

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Assembly Deputy Speaker John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) says that he is the "DOT official" described in a criminal complaint against Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Jersey City) and that he told Smith he was not interested in doing legal work for someone later identified as federal informant Solomon Dwek.

According to the complaint, Smith allegedly told Dwek during a meeting at a Hoboken diner that he would seek help from a powerful contact in the Assembly to expedite a development project Dwek told Smith he was trying to build on Route 440.

Smith called Wisniewski, the Chairman of the Assembly Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee, in an apparent attempt to earn a $10,000 cash payment.  Smith's efforts to obtain Wisniewski's legal help went nowhere fast, according to the complaint, a point verified by Wisniewski. 

The meeting allegedly took place on Friday, July 17.
 
"He called me on a Friday," Wisniewski told PolitickerNJ.com, saying that Smith offered to recommend him for some legal work.

"I have a policy. If a member of my (the transportation) committee calls, I take the call," Wisniewski said. "He told me that people he was working with were looking for an attorney to help them with the DOT. I said, 'Harvey, I can't take a private client and represent them before the DOT.'

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ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

(TRENTON) - Landmark legislation that takes a broad approach to jumpstarting local economic development projects and creating new jobs by maximizing New Jersey's federal stimulus investments and promoting growth and development efforts vital to repositioning the state for long-term prosperity was signed into law today by Gov. Jon Corzine.

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While South Amboy Mayor John O'Leary battles to prove he's done nothing wrong, the Middlesex County Democratic Party has made moves to replace him as a 19th Legislative District Assembly candidate --  just in case his efforts prove futile.
 
The state Attorney General's Office is reportedly investigating work with area towns by O'Leary's insurance brokerage firm, and work allegedly performed in South Amboy by the Baltimore-based insurance company Federal Hill Risk Management.  O'Leary has denied that the firm has any affiliation with the one he operates with his brother.

A replacement candidate for three term incumbent Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy), who backed out of running for re-election amid federal and state corruption indictments, O'Leary received a subpoena last week - the result of an anonymous letter circulating in the district, which charges the 23-year mayor with abusing his office.

Insisting he's innocent, O'Leary has vowed to weather the bad news cycle and to clear his name. But sources close to party leaders say the Democrats don't want a firestorm in a safe Democratic district. Some Democrats want O'Leary to withdraw, an outcome that to some could prove fortuitous, given the early demands and subsequent frustration of the powerful Latino Leadership Alliance (LLA).

"I don't know the particulars about the O'Leary situation, but I have spoken in the past with (Middlesex County) Democratic Party Chairman Joe Spicuzzo indicating to him the importance of replacing Joe Vas with another Latino," said Martin Perez, the alliance's founder and executive director.

That didn't happen when the party nominated O'Leary without a challenge.
 
For the moment, "Mayor O'Leary maintains he hasn't done anything wrong, and right now there is no reason to believe he's going to get out of the race," said Spicuzzo. "He's talking it over with family and friends, but he maintains that he is in the race."

When Vas's re-election candidacy went belly up with the impact of corruption charges earlier this year, his conqueror in last year's mayoral race, Perth Amboy Mayor Wilda Diaz, faced the prospect of working with party leaders to select a successor to Vas from the district's second most populous town.

Insiders, including members of the LLA, told Diaz to field a Latino candidate from Perth Amboy, but the new mayor instead backed cross-the-river veteran O'Leary.

Now sources say Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Mathias Rodriguez is interested in running - in the event that O'Leary abandons his candidacy, and party leaders like him. Read More >

SAYREVILLE - It looked like rain would obliterate this event the second time the crowd scattered, either for the refuge of the main tent or the parking lot.

But the madcapped exodus out of there didn't deter those who stayed at the St. Stan's Church Carnival, among whom numbered Gov. Jon Corzine, Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville), and a small entourage of Democrats conscious of making retail contact as the governor struggles to break out of a mid-summer double digit deficit against GOP challenger Chris Christie.

"Sayreville is a good bellweather of New Jersey, it's a Democratic town but it's conservative," Wisniewski said of this riverside Middlesex community, population around 40,000, with 9,324 Democrats and 2,503 Republicans, where voters have enough of an independent streak to keep a Republican mayor in charge.

"This is the biggest event of the summer," added the chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, who on more than one occasion quibbled with Corzine on policy, but who voted for the governor's hard luck $29 billion budget on Thursday and is now committed to reelecting him.

The men gnawed on ribs, sampled ethnic cuisine from a menu that included pierogi and kielbasa, and bellied up to the beer stall.

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ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL PASSES ASSEMBLY
Would Place Moratorium on Nonresidential Development Fee,
Expand Transit Hub Tax Credit, Fuel Redevelopment,
Allow Colleges to Partner with Private Firms To Build Infrastructure

(TRENTON) - The General Assembly today passed landmark legislation that would take a broad approach to jumpstarting local economic development projects and creating new jobs by maximizing New Jersey's federal stimulus investments and promoting growth and development efforts vital to repositioning the state for long-term prosperity.

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