Zulima Farber

After Zulima Farber was forced to resign as Attorney General for using bad judgment when she involved herself in a traffic incident that involved her boyfriend.  One of the people who sought the appointment to replace her: Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.  Molinelli, the former Bergen County Democratic Organization Treasurer, was also reportedly considered for the post after Governor Jon Corzine's election in 2005.

When is a public official’s significant other (to whom they are not related by marriage), considered their “companion” rather than their “girlfriend” or “live-in boyfriend”?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Adler might be the Rodney Dangerfield of New Jersey politics. U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie referred to him as a "third-rate bureaucrat" while speaking to reporters following a speech in Mercer County today. And at a Gannett editiorial board meeting in October 2005, then-gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine threw the Harvard Law graduate under the bus: "John Adler will not be my attorney general. We will pick the very best individual with the skills to make sure we carry out an executive order to clean up politics in this state," Corzine said.

Two months later, Corzine nominated Zulima Farber.

Several public officials today expressed surprise at the complaint filed against Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, but legal insiders for years have considered the McGreevey-appointee has one of the Judiciary’s most narcissistic jurists. Even prior to his confirmation to the bench, his former adversaries were quoted in an April 2004 Star-Ledger profile describing him as “pompous,” “arrogant and abrasive,” and questioned whether he had the temperament for the post.

If Associate Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto is disciplined for using the power of his judicial post to influence the private interests of his family, will he be held to the same standards of conduct that forced Zulima Farber to resign as Attorney General of New Jersey last summer?  Rivera-Soto, who does not come up for reappointment until 2011, is accused of improper involvement in a "head-butting" dispute  involving his son and another football player during a practice touch football game last fall.  Farber was forced out of office after accusations that she used her influence in a traffic incident involving her live-in boyfriend.

The New Jersey Press Association has named The Record's Carolyn Salazar as its Journalist of The Year. Salazar broke the Zulima Farber story last summer.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...
WHAT'S TO DEBATE? TAKE PENSIONS AWAY FROM CROOKS

Editorial, The Courier News, December 19, 2006

Those grand tax reform plans being bandied about the Statehouse are continuing to bog down, thanks to a murky combination of political cowardice, legal complexities and simple apathy. While plenty of legislators say they're gung ho for change, actions speak louder than words. And there remains plenty of reluctance to act aggressively, especially on those proposals that might hit a little too close to home for comfort.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...

Ethics panel should convene more often

Editorial, The Courier-Post, October 26, 2006

In a state with so many unethical people in government, it's embarrassing that a state ethics committee hadn't met for more than a year until this week.

Nothing could put less faith in our state legislators than the fact that the ethics committee assembled to oversee them apparently only meets at the bare minimum.

The state's Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards, a panel made up of eight legislators and eight non-legislators, met Monday for the first time since May 2005.

State law says the ethics committee must meet every two years to reorganize but gives no other information in the form of a timetable.

In a state with as many ethical quagmires, questionable contracts and double-dipping, pension-padding lawmakers as New Jersey, also the home of most corruption jokes about dirty politicians, it's ludicrous that this committee just now met for the first time in well over a year.

Menendez's Silence On Bryant Makes First Campaign Commercial First Broken Promise
Where's the guy who promised to "stand up for what is right, no matter what?"

Trenton, NJ - New Jersey Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson issued the following statement today:

CARDINALE: APPOINT WILLIAMS AS ETHICS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
Will Oppose Nomination of any Legislator to Head Committee

Senator Gerald A. Cardinale (R-Bergen) today announced his intention to nominate retired Superior Court Judge Richard J. Williams to be the next Chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards. Judge Williams is a public member of the committee, and recently concluded a successful investigation into unethical conduct of former-Attorney General Zulima Farber.