Mims Hackett

Yesterday was not the first time Mims Hackett saw the inside of a courtroom. In the 1970’s, he was sentence to thirty years in a state prison following his conviction on assault and kidnapping charges.

In August 1975, Hackett, a school teacher and community activist, was accused of kidnapping Larry Moss from the front porch of his Orange home and hitting him with a gun after questioning him about neighborhood break-ins.

Bill Baroni wants Gov. Corzine to call a special legislative session next week to tackle ethics reformNews that two of his colleagues in the Assembly - among others - had been indicted on corruption charges in federal court Thursday sounded like a leaden cymbal clash in the lead up to festivities at the Democratic State Conference at Bally’s in Atlantic City.

But State Democratic Chairman Assemblyman Joseph Cryan gave no indication he believes the party, as in the one he belongs to, shouldn’t go on, even as he acknowledged that the state needs stronger ethics reforms.

Meanwhile, a Republican outfit ridiculed for months as the most obvious institutional wreckage left over from a sagging Bush presidency, found an opening.

Mark Meyerowitz says Democrats won't let Mims Hackett stay in the race“All of the sudden, the world has discovered me,” says Mark Meyerowitz, the 52-year-old West Orange Republican who is suddenly on the political radar screen following the arrest this morning of Assemblyman Mims Hackett, his opponent in the race for State Assembly.

Hackett, who is also the Mayor of Orange, was charged with taking a accepting a $5,000 bribe to deliver a town insurance contract. He was allegedly promised an addition $25,000 after the contract was approved.

If Hackett remains in the race – two influential Democratic officials said tonight that they think he needs to go – then Meyerowitz, a financial planner with little political experience, could become a first-tier challenger in the November mid-term election. In the Essex-based 27th district, where popular Senate President Richard Codey heads the ticket, suburban white independents represent the majority of voters.

Paul Moriarty needs to decide if he wants to be an Assemblyman or the Mayor of Washington Township, says his Republican opponent, Agnes Gardiner. 

Moriarty was elected Mayor in 2004 and to the State Assembly in 2005.  While a new law bans future dual officeholders, Moriarty can take advantage of a grandfather clause that would allow him to hold both offices for as long as he wants, or can.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announces criminal charges against 11 public officials, including two legislators
The ironic presence of a framed portrait of Washington crossing the Delaware was not lost on two courtroom artists crouched over their easel with erasers and pastels Thursday. In their rendering, they took some license in centering the framed and famed heroic portrait of 12 men braving the elements over the heads of the 12 men in the docket, who crowded together, resembled another band of ragtag shipmates.

The trouble was they weren’t crossing the Delaware, but stranded this side of the river in handcuffs and leg-irons in Trenton’s Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building, in the uncomfortable position of fighting off U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie.

Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni acknowledged the charges of either conspiracy to extort corrupt payments or attempting to extort corrupt payments that Christie’s office brought against the men - 11 of them elected or former elected officials from Pleasantville to Passaic, among them dual-officeholder Mims Hackett, an Assemblyman and the Mayor of Orange, Assembly Deputy Speaker (and Passaic County Undersheriff Alfred Steele), and Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera.

New Jersey’s legislative leadership expressed frustration with the arrests of Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, but Senate President Richard Codey, Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce stopped short of calling for the resignations of the two legislators accused of accepting bribes.

But several legislators, including State Sen. Ellen Karcher, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, and Assemblyman Michael Panter -- all Democrats -- said that Steele and Hackett should resign.

Among Essex County Democrats, including Senate President Richard Codey, there has been active discussion today of replacing Mims Hackett in the 27th district Assembly race.  That's Codey's district, and he clearly doesn't want to deal with even a remote possibility that an unknown Republican from his hometown might actually win this fairly solid Democratic seat.

The race is complicated by the federal probe in the 38th district, where Codey's candidate, State Senator Joseph Coniglio, is the target of yet another federal corruption probe.  If Codey pushes for Hackett's withdrawal, it could be hard for him to justify his continued support of Coniglio -- even though the Bergen Senator has not been charged with any crime. (Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero has a poll showing that Coniglio has a problem, but so far, the two-term Senator is resisting moves to replace him on the ballot.)

Today's arrests could be the first real test of Assemblyman Michael Panter's legislation (A-20), which requires mandatory prison sentences and pension forfeiture for any public officials convicted of corruption.  Governor Jon "Hold Me Accountable" Corzine signed the bill on March 16th of this year and it took effect on April 15th.  Criminal complaints filed today by the U.S. Attorney could mean that Assemblymen Alfred Steele and Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, Passaic Councilman Marcellus Jackson, and Keith Reid, the Chief of Staff to the Newark City Council President, would lose their pensions if convicted of bribery.

First-term Orange Councilman Ed Marable, Jr., on the ballot as an Independent Assembly candidate against Mims Hackett in the 27th district, says he is the best candidate in the race -- "regardless of what happens to Mims."

The Orange native, a self-described Independent Democrat, said he filed for the Assembly in June out of a sense of frustration over Hackett's concentration of power.  He said he was frustrated by the Essex Democratic Organization's decision to withdraw support for Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo's re-election.

U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie continues his war on corruptionU.S. Attorney Christopher Christie today announced indictments against eleven current and former public officials on bribery charges, including Assembly Deputy Speaker Alfred Steele, Assemby State Government Committee Chairman (and Orange Mayor) Mims Hackett, Passaic Mayor Sammy Rivera, and Pete Callaway, a member of a prominent and controversial Atlantic County political family.