Corruption stings color elections in New Jersey

A massive federal corruption sting over the summer again made New Jersey a punch line for late-night comedians, but it has also turned local political campaigns inside out and emboldened underdog candidates - and forced one city to mount a special election after its mayor was arrested after three weeks on the job.

Even for a state with a rich history of political corruption, it has been an eventful political season, highlighted by the spectacle of one district in which an outgoing legislator faces federal charges and a leading candidate is under indictment on state charges.

Worse, a jaded public appears resigned to being ruled by scoundrels. Although nearly all the elected officials arrested in July were Democrats, nearly three in four people surveyed for a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll in August said Republicans would be just as corrupt if they held the reins of power.

About two in three felt their state legislators were more concerned about their own financial interests than the public good.

"I don't know if there was ever a time when the public was not jaded," said Joseph Marbach, a political scientist and dean of Seton Hall University's college of arts and sciences. "You can go back to our founding as a state, and our first governor was recalled for bribery and corruption."

Three mayors, two state assemblymen, the head of Jersey City's council and several unsuccessful candidates for office were among those arrested in a July corruption roundup so big it surprised even New Jerseyans, who have watched more than 100 public officials plead guilty or get convicted in the past several years.

The July busts centered on an FBI informant who posed as a corrupt developer offering bribes to public officials for help with zoning approvals.

The arrests caused the biggest disruption in Hoboken, where 32-year-old Peter Cammarano was arrested three weeks after being elected as the city's youngest mayor, accused of taking $25,000 from the informant. His resignation forced the city known as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra and the setting for "On The Waterfront" to dust off the voting machines for a special election next week featuring seven candidates.

Hoboken resident Helen Hirsch said voters are angry about the corruption forcing yet another election, and the lavish fundraisers, excessive spending and divisive politics that appear to be the hallmark of campaigns in the 1-square-mile city of about 40,000 people.

"This offends me more than I can tell you; with people going hungry, the thousands and thousands of dollars that are being spent on these campaigns," Hirsch said. "A single mailing can cost $10,000, and they keep coming, three or four mailers every day."

In stark contrast to the hotly contested Hoboken race, Independent candidate Michael Gonnelli went from perennial challenger to unopposed candidate in Secaucus, where Mayor Dennis Elwell resigned after his arrest in the federal probe.

Gonnelli, a councilman in the northern New Jersey town that sits in the shadows of the Meadowlands sports complex, is a longtime Elwell rival who sounded disappointed at what others might consider good fortune.

"I wish he (Elwell) was still here so I could have finished the fight," Gonnelli said. "I wish I was running against him - that's what I've been building up to the last three years - to see who the better man is and to give the voters the chance to choose. But the whole sting operation kind of put a stop to that."

In the legislative district that covers the Hudson River cities of Bayonne and Jersey City, state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith stepped aside to run unsuccessfully for mayor of Jersey City, then was arrested in July on suspicion of taking bribes from the federal informant.

The other incumbent, Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone, was arrested in a separate investigation in August and accused of taking money from legislative aides' paychecks and putting it into campaign and personal accounts. Chiappone refused entreaties from Democratic party leaders to step down and has characterized the charges against him as politically motivated. He said his constituents are worried more about the economy than corruption.

"People right now are concerned about what's directly affecting them," he said. "These are obviously desperate times that are affecting a lot of people."

Corruption also has touched two other Assembly races: In southern New Jersey, where incumbent Daniel Van Pelt resigned after being arrested in July; and in central New Jersey, where former Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas faces state and federal charges.

Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, the third mayor arrested in the federal sweep, is not up for re-election but is the subject of recall efforts by local Republicans.

New Jersey's history of public officials behaving badly apparently predates statehood. When it was consolidated into a royal colony in 1702, the first royal governor, Lord Edward Hyde Cornbury, was recalled to England after being accused of accepting bribes in a land speculation deal and granting favors to certain factions of colonists.

These days, corruption-weary New Jersey voters should stop and think before throwing up their hands in defeat, said Irene Kim Asbury, who is opposing Chiappone.

"If our tax dollars are used to bribe people or are laundered for other purposes, they're not being used for what they're earmarked for," Asbury said. "So it is important. People are jaded, but if evil and corruption happen, we'll pay for it - if not now, then down the road."