Nick Acocella

After federal agents arrested dozens of New Jersey politicos last month, some readers of the criminal complaints against them took solace in knowing that there was at least one public official who “could not be owned.” 

That person was briefly mentioned in the complaint against Jersey City veteran political consultant Joseph Cardwell who, discussing corrupt officials to hook an FBI informant up with, mentioned there was a “particular state government official who could not be owned.”  

In today’s Politifax, editor Nick Acocella writes he has “excellent reason to believe” that the official is state Sen. Sandra B. Cunningham (D-Jersey City).

Frank "I Am the Law" Hague ruled Jersey City from 1917 to 1947

When Douglas Salters started as an aide to Jersey City Councilman James McLaughlin in 1993, the first thing his fellow City Hall staffers showed him was a desk. Not just any desk, but the one that belonged to the legendary Frank Hague.

Hague was mayor from 1917 to 1947 and word is he profited richly from it, becoming a millionaire despite never making a salary of more than $8,500 a year.  His iron grip on local politics, though never matched, became the symbol of Jersey City's notorious political culture.  His famous desk, which is still in City Hall, has a special drawer that Hague would push out, allowing guests to surreptitiously and conveniently deposit bribes.

"They said ‘This is Jersey City'... I was one day in office when I was shown that, and I realized that this was a rare kind of place," said Salters, who ran for council earlier this year in Ward B on the reform "One Jersey City" slate.

Yesterday, Salters was part of a group of about 80 who were protesting in front of City Hall, where the city council was about to have its first session since Thursday's corruption bust that took down two of Hudson County's mayors, an Assemblyman, the Jersey City Council president, a Jersey City Deputy Mayor and several city employees and political operatives.  It remains to be seen whether the feds will press on against Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who turns up as "JC Official 4" in one of the criminal complaints.

Is Bill Bradley on Barack Obama's short list for Vice President?: Getty Images Photo
Politifax’s Nick Acocella reports this week that former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley is a top contender to become Barack Obama’s veep pick.

Acocella wrote that a former Democratic governor from another state told him “that the former Hall of Fame basketball player, the former Senator, the former presidential candidate, and the current post-politics intellectual is not only very high on Barack Obamas vice presidential short list but also the preferred choice of master strategist David Axelrod.”

While the bulk of the state’s prominent politicos came out for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Bradley endorsed Obama in January.

Bradley sought the Democratic presidential nomination against Al Gore in 2000.

At 6:30 this evening on NJN, PoltickerNJ.com correspondent Matt Friedman will join a political roundtable to discuss New Jersey's current political scene. Friedman will be joined by Gannett New Jersey's Greg Volpe, Politifax's Nick Acocella, and the Bergen Record's Charles Stile, with NJN Senior Political Correspondent Michael Aron hosting the discussion.

The roundtable will recap the state's U.S. Senate primary elections, ongoing budget negotiations, legislative hearings on executive county school superintendents and the possibility that Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's emails to Carla Katz may be made public.

Tonight on NJN’s Reporters Roundtable, Gov. Jon Corzine will discuss his toll road plan, Super Tuesday and other topics with host Michael Aron, Nick Acocella of Politifax, Herb Jackson of the Bergen Record and Milennium Radio newsman Kevin McArdle. The show airs tonight at 6:30 and Sunday morning at 10am.

The best lede of the week came from Nick Acocella's Politifax:

"Last week we had one of those moments, a bolt of lightening on the road to Damascus if you're of a biblical turn of mind, an epiphany if you prefer literary illusions. No, it wasn't a dream about what it was like to have lived in the prelapsarian world before Christie Whitman's pension bond."

Sources at the Star-Ledger say that publisher Jim Willse has decided that all reporters should carry digital cameras and will be required to capture still shots and video while they are covering stories. The sources say some of the reporters are not happy to have the new photographer responsibilities added to their work load.

A great line from one of our readers, the kind of guy Nick Acocella would affectionately describe as an "anonymous wag": "Well, at least Rocco Riccio is gonna be off the front pages for a bit."

Was it a slap or a tap? 

Did Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny hit a Hoboken official in the face yesterday, or was he just being playful?
 
City Councilman Michael Russo says that it was a slap, and that it hurt.  But unless veteran firefighter Tom Molta speaks up, the world may never know.

Russo claims he was having a casual, non-political conversation with Molta when the 60-year-old Kenny came running up to them, thinking they were talking politics.