Corzine seemed unaware that Schoor admitted he bribed two public officials

The only thing more shocking than Governor Jon "Zero Tolerance" Corzine publicly embracing a man convicted of bribing a public official is that Republicans have not seized on Corzine's statements as a campaign issue.  This seems to have been a one day story.

Howard Schoor, the founder of a politically influential engineering firm, who pleaded guilty last year to paying a $15,000 bribe to influence a sewerage authority contract in Ocean Township, was among the attendees at a Corzine campaign fundraiser at the Borgota Hotel Casino in Atlantic City on April 22, hosted by a law firm and an engineering firm.  In February, Schoor was sentenced to two years on probation.

"I publicly acknowledged him and said I thought he's a good man," Corzine told the Star-Ledger's Josh Margolin, who broke the story this week.  "I think he is a good man. If he actually was involved in bribes and payoffs -- I don't think he was ever convicted of that particular element -- I wouldn't approve of that. I don't approve of it. But I think he's a good man. He's been very philanthropic."

Schoor admitted that he paid a bribe to then-Ocean Township Mayor Terrance Weldon and Sewerage Authority Chairman Stephen Kessler while the three were attending the New Jersey League of Municipalities Convention in Atlantic City in November 2001. 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie, who was the U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Schoor, Weldon and Kessler, was critical of Corzine in response to Margolin's question.  "Only in Jon Corzine's Trenton would a convicted felon who engaged in political corruption be invited to a political event by the governor and then be praised by him publicly," Christie said.  While Christie addressed the issue with Margolin, the type of stampede of condemnation that would normally come from a story like this has not occurred.

But the ability to use the attendance of a someone who has admitted to bribing a public official at the governor's fundraiser as a campaign issue is somewhat diminished by this twist: Christie's campaign chairman, State Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Middletown), was among the people who wrote letters offering a character reference for Schoor prior to his sentencing.  Schoor got a slap on the wrists compared to Kessler, who was sentenced six weeks later to one year in a federal prison.

And for those who missed the hypocrisy: nearly nine years after he got caught bribing public officials in an Atlantic City hotel, Schoor returned to an Atlantic City hotel to attend a political fundraiser - something that apparently does not violate the terms of his probation.

In an unrelated matter, newly-elected Bergen County Democratic Chairman Michael Kasparian has decided that the ethics training he promised would be optional.