Joseph Roberts

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(TRENTON) – Governor Jon S. Corzine, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and Democratic Chairman Joseph Cryan today released the following joint statement:

 
“These are serious public corruption charges. The voters of the 19th Legislative District deserve a legislative team they can rely on to act with full integrity. Therefore, we think the Assemblyman should step aside."

Three leaders of the state’s Democratic Party added their own votes of no confidence to indicted Assemblyman Joe Vas’s (D-Perth Amboy) tenure today.  

Governor Corzine, Democratic State Chairman/Assemblyman Joe Cryan (D-Union) and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) issued a short joint statement this morning calling on Vas to resign.  

“These are serious public corruption charges. The voters of the 19th Legislative District deserve a legislative team they can rely on to act with full integrity. Therefore, we think the Assemblyman should step aside,” read the statement.  

Both of Vas's fellow District 19 legislators, state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Woodbridge) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville), called on him to resign yesterday.

Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) today announced that he’s stripping indicted Assemblyman Joseph Vas (D-Perth Amboy) of his chairmanship of the Commerce and Economic Development Committee and his position as Deputy Majority Leader.

Vas was indicted yesterday by Attorney General Anne Milgram on 11 counts of theft and bid rigging related to his work as mayor of Perth Amboy, where he served from 1990 to 2008.  

“Any time an elected official is accused of using their office for personal gain, it stains the reputations of all of us who have chosen to dedicate ourselves to public service,” said Roberts in a statement issued this morning.” 

Two weeks ago, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie predicted that Governor Jon Corzine would blame New Jersey’s economic woes on the global economic crisis.  "The governor's going to say, 'It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's the global economic crisis's fault,” the former U.S. Attorney said.

Christie was close.  Corzine never called the crisis global; in his budget address he mentioned the “national economic crisis.” 

But the “global economic crisis” catch phrase is already getting plenty of play.  One press release put out by the Assembly Democratic office last week used the words “global economic crisis “five times.  Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), in a statement issued yesterday, said: “The Governor should be commended for proposing a bold plan to help stave off this global economic crisis.”  Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden), Assemblyman Jack Conners (D-Pennsauken), and State Treasurer David Rousseau all used the “global economic crisis” terminology.

ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS COMMENTARY ON 2009 BUDGET ADDRESS

(TRENTON) - Assembly Democrats today issued a multimedia package on their reactions to Governor Jon S. Corzine's 2009 Budget Address.

The multimedia package consists of a video press release of legislative commentary, audio of same and a transcript of statements by the lawmakers.

As the press releases containing official responses to Gov. Jon Corzine's last budget address before his reelection rolled in this afternoon, two themes stuck out along starkly partisan lines.

Assembly Democrats repeatedly called it a "prudent," "tough" and generally fiscally responsible way to "position" the state for an eventual national economic recovery, which they've long contended is responsible for the state's fiscal straits.

Assembly Republicans disparaged the Governor's talk of drastic measures as the culmination of three years of not doing enough to curtail state government expenses, compounded by the fiscal practices of seven years of Democratic domination in Trenton and his own broken campaign promises.

Assemblyman Nelson Albano will succeed Douglas Fisher as Chairman of the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-Vineland), who faces a potentially tough re-election campaign this year, will be the new chairman of the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.  Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) today named the two-term Cumberland County Democrat to replace Douglas Fisher, who resigned from the Assembly last week to become Secretary of Agriculture.

A member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union for nearly 30 years, Albano is the shop steward at Village Supermarkets in Vineland.  He had served as committee vice chairman under Fisher.

ROBERTS/WATSON COLEMAN PARTICIPATE IN TELE-TOWN HALL WITH AARP MEMBERS

Discuss Concerns over Property Taxes, Foreclosure, Health Care

(TRENTON) - Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr., and Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman today issued a multimedia package featuring highlights of their hour-long tele-town hall with AARP New Jersey members, during which they discussed Assembly efforts to combat the global economic crisis.

Assemblyman Douglas Fisher (D-Bridgeton) will resign at the end of this week to become the new Secretary of Agriculture.  Democratic leaders have picked Bridgeton Council President Celeste Riley to take his place, and she can take office after she is formally elected at a special election convention, which can be scheduled 7-35 days after Fisher’s official resignation. 

Democratic sources expect Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) to pick Assemblyman Nelson Albano (D-Vineland) to replace Fisher as Chairman of the Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

TRENTON -- Minutes after Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts (D-Camden) told reporters that the state's current budget forecast is the worst he's seen in his 22 years as a legislator, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie held a news conference to outline his proposals for taking a "hands on role" in stimulating the state's economy.

In a key point meant to counteract the common argument that the Bush Administration is to blame for landing the country and therefore the state in its current cash-strapped predicament, Christie argued that New Jersey has its own government's policies to blame - not the global economic recession.

"For seven years now, two governors and a Democratic legislature have succeeded in making New Jersey the worst place in the nation for private sector employment. That's beyond dispute and it's going to take a number of years for us to restore the state's image," said Christie, the former U.S. Attorney.

The overarching theme of Christie's proposals, which included tax cuts, eliminating the Economic Development Authority, doing away with the position of chief of economic growth, health insurance reform, government agency fine and fee reform, legal liability reform and the creation of a "Red Tape Review Board," was to make New Jersey a more business-friendly state.