Zulima Farber

CASHA FOR ASSEMBLY
WWW.CASHAFORASSEMBLY.ORG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Larry Casha
August 4, 2006 973-263-1114

FARBER MUST RESIGN, PART 2
Transcripts clearly show influence

Kinnelon – Twenty sixth district Republican Assembly candidate Larry Casha issued the following statement concerning the recent release of phone transcripts between New Jersey State Police Lieutenant George Justin, Zulima Farber’s driver, and Fairview Police Department dispatchers on Memorial Day 2006:

“Attorney General Zulima Farber says that she did not influence events that led to her boyfriend being allowed to drive an unregistered vehicle while his license was suspended, but the transcripts of the call between her driver and the Fairview Police clearly show other wise.

“At one point in the call the senior Fairview officer at the scene, speaking to his dispatcher, mentions that the car belongs to ‘the Attorney General’s family’, to which the dispatcher responds, ‘why the hell didn’t you tell me?’. After which the AG’s boyfriend was allowed to leave the scene without the proper paperwork for his vehicle as long as Farber followed him home. No influence? The citizens of New Jersey know better.

“People I speak to around my district know that they would not be afforded the same leeway if they were caught with an unregistered vehicle and suspended license. Enough is enough! Abuse of power doesn’t have to mean money changing hands. It’s about using your position to gain unfair advantage. This is clearly what happened.

“It’s time Governor Corzine calls for Farber’s resignation and if he won’t do it, Farber should demonstrate true leadership and step down herself.�

###

There were no reports of friends and family of Attorney General Zulima Farber violating any traffic laws this weekend, although the person driving John Burzichelli's black Lincoln Continental on I-295 on Friday afternoon was going a little fast. Has anyone else noticed that Radio Free Lapolla, the official AM station owned and operated by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, is not exactly easy on the ear?

New Jersey Republicans have not won a United States Senate race since 1972, but with independent polls showing the contest to be a close one, two GOP Assemblymen are actively courting County Committee members just in case there is a Special Election Convention in January for Tom Kean Jr.'s 21st district State Senate seat. Republicans say that Jon Bramnick and Eric Munoz both plan to run for the Senate if Kean goes to Washington, and both legislators have declined to wait until November to begin their campaigns.

If Munoz wins, he would become the lone Latino in the upper house -- and the first Latino Republican to serve in the New Jersey Senate. But insiders say that in the event of a vacancy, Bramnick may have an edge among party leaders.

One possible candidate for an Assembly seat (if a Senate vacancy triggers another Special Election Convention) is J. Brooke Hern, a former aide to U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli who is now a Republican Councilman in New Providence. Hern sought the Democratic nomination for Congress in 2000 and was the Democratic Assembly candidate against Kean in 2001. Since then, Hern has switched parties and has become a close ally of Kean.

RICE DEMANDS FARBER INTERVENE IN GETTING ANSWERS FROM THE GANGLAND SECURITY TASK FORCE

NEWARK - Senator Ronald L. Rice released the following statement today in regards to the rising gang-related crime in New Jersey and the lack of noticeable progress by a task force assembled to study the problem.

"We need to have real action immediately on solving the gang problem in our State. The killings and shootings are taking place on a daily basis in our urban communities and we no longer have time for empty rhetoric -- we need solutions now.

REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE OF UNION COUNTY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 24, 2006
Contact: RCUC Chairman Phil Morin 908-709-1450

FARBER CALLS IN FAVOR FROM COUNTY FREEHOLDER

Estrada, a Union County freeholder and MVC manager, Helped AG's Boyfriend To Straighten Out License, Registration Problems

Union County Republican Chairman Phil Morin issued the following response in connection with a report from Sunday's Record[i] in which Attorney General Zulima Farber admitted that she called Union County Freeholder Angel Estrada, who is manager for the MVC office in Elizabeth, to inform him that her live-in boyfriend, Hamlet Goore, was driving down from Fairview to straighten out problems with his driver's license and car registration. Goore, whose license was expired, drove himself to the Elizabeth MVC and Estrada stood in line with Goore.
Unlike Bob Menendez, who's been a "no-show" when it comes to commenting on Farbergate, Freeholder Estrada has once and for all dispelled the rumor that his job with MVC is a "no-show" political appointment. In fact, Freeholder Estrada was more than willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to do a favor for the embattled Attorney General and her live-in boyfriend when called upon. While a taxpayer funded $75,000-a-month investigation into Farbergate is getting underway, and Democrats are running for cover to distance themselves from General Farber, at least she can take comfort in the fact that her Union County political buddy was willing to go to battle for her. When the all-Democrat Union County Freeholder Board adopted their slogan - "We're Connected To You"- I guess they meant that if you are politically connected, you can speed dial the manager of your local MVC, drive on an expired license across two counties and have the whole mess taken care of in about a half an hour.
-30-

Only in New Jersey would an Attorney General facing an ethics investigation by an indepedent prosecutor and calls for resignation and even impeachment hire a lobbying firm to handle her personal public relations. The Record reported this weekend that Zulima Farber has hired the highly-respected Mickey Faigen of Issues Management to advise her on how to handle the media.

Issues Management is owned by Lowenstein Sandler, the Roseland law firm where Farber was a partner before her appointment as Attorney General. The firm's website says that Issues Management "has
repeatedly been ranked New Jersey's number one lawyer-lobbying firm." Among the clients for whom Issues Management lobbies state government is the St. Barnabas Health Care System, which recently agreed to pay a $265 million settlement on federal charges that it defrauded Medicare. As a result of that settlement, nine smaller New Jersey hospitals have filed a lawsuit against St. Barnabas.

From the Issues Management website: "Issues Management leverages the knowledge and experience of our senior staff in regulation, legislation and crisis communication to generate distinct, high impact strategies. We execute them with intensity. Wherever public and private concerns intersect, we know the landscape; we know the players; we think beyond the familiar."

One minor legal ruling from state Attorney General Zulima Farber, first made public a in June by the Star-Ledger's Auditor column, was that the gubernatorial line of succession need not be activated just because the Governor spends the "ocassional" night out of state. New Jersey tradition, based on the legal view of another Attorney General a long time ago, had dicated that the moment the Governor touched the soil of another state, the Acting Governor would take over.

Farber's ruling, if applied retroactively, could threaten the legacy of the late Robert Crane, who served as Acting Governor of New Jersey more than forty years ago. Crane was a rising star in state politics: the Editor and Publisher of the Elizabeth Daily Journal and a former President of the New Jersey Press Association, Crane was 36-years-old when he won a State Senate seat in a 1956 special election. Crane was prominently mentioned a future gubernatorial candidate. But in 1961, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When the Senate met to reorganize on January 9, 1962, Crane was elected Senate President. Governor Robert Meyner drove across the bridge to Pennsylvania for lunch so that Crane could be sworn in as the Acting Governor -- completing the honor and allowing Crane to have a permanent asterik in the Fitzgerald's Legislative Manual explaining his place in history. He resigned as Senate President an hour later, and died in office three months later.

There were years when political junkies, including the one who writes this column, would stop somewhere late Saturday night to buy the Sunday Star-Ledger, just for the privilege of reading David Wald's column on New Jersey politics. From 1978 to 2000, his column was the epicenter of insider news in this state. Wald was unspinnable, and a low tolerance for the spreading of male cow manure. So respectfully, Wald's fans -- which certainly includes this writer --who have watched him cover six gubernatorial campaigns and fourteen Attorneys General (including three who became gubernatorial candidates) -- have to wonder how Wald, now serving as the spokesman for the state Attorney General, would have written his stories on the embattled Zulima Farber.

Interesting footnote: As Communications Director for U.S. Senator Jon Corzine, Wald worked for Darius Goore, the son of Farber's live-in boyfriend, who was Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of communications.

New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission records show that Hamlet Goore, the live-in boyfriend of Attorney General Zulima Farber, conrtibuted $500 to the New Jersey Democratic State Committee on September 25, 2005. Goore listed his occupation as "Legal" and his employer as Lowenstein Sandler, the Roseland law firm where Farber was a partner.

A source at the prestigious firm says that "Hamlet never worked here," and questioned whether they would ever hire an attorney "with his record." Goore was disciplined by the state Supreme Court in 1992 for engaging in "patterns of neglect" and for failure to "promptly deliver funds to a client," and again in 1995 for filing inaccurate and false fee certifications with a bankruptcy court." Six months earlier, Goore had contributed $1,000 to Jon Corzine's gubernatorial campaign. He listed his employer as the Township of Irvington (where he is now the acting Commissioner of Community Development and Planning) and his address as the residence her shares with Farber in North Bergen.

For extreme junkies only: in 1977, Goore was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Assembly, running off the line in a primary against then two-term Assemblyman Richard Codey. He got crushed. Goore's first wife, Joyce Goore, is a Democratic Councilwoman in East Orange, and their son, Darius Goore, served as Corzine's Deputy Chief of Staff in his Washington Senate office.

INVERSO TO FARBER: “I DON’T KNOW� DOESN’T CUT IT Inverso Seeks to Have BPU Audit Made Public
and is Troubled Over AG’S Attitude

Senator Peter Inverso, (R-14), issued the following statement regarding the published comments of Attorney General Zulima Farber concerning the suppressed audit of the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Clean Energy Program. When asked how the BPU could approve more than $309 million in new spending when all of the BPU commissioners have been denied access to the audit, Attorney General Farber replied, “I don’t know.�