One thing that seems most odd about the recent corruption arrests made by the FBI throughout New Jersey and Brooklyn is how few real movers and shakers got arrested.
While rumors circulate about a second wave of arrests, the feds are going to have to rely on more turncoats to get any of the really big fish swimming in the cesspool of Hudson County corruption.
Okay, so the FBI arrested Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano,Jersey Council President Marianno Vega, and a host of others including Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and former Assemblyman Louis Manzo. Most of those charged were on the fringes of actual political power.
Louis’ brother, Ron Manzo, who has faced legal problems before, has always been a behind-the-scenes guy, a freelance operator who had ties to, but never really belonged to any political organization. Louis, who ran for mayor of Jersey City, likewise hovered near the edges of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, sometimes in, but most of the time an outsider fighting to get in.
While Vega, Cammarano, and Elwell might be seen as significant catches, even they can hardly be seen as significant losses to the Democratic machine that has operated in Hudson County since the days of Frank “I’m the boss” Hague.
Vega has always been a good soldier in the HCDO, never one of its brain trusts.
Cammarano is a newbie, someone – if the transcripts are to be believed – who believed his own hype after his narrow victory against challenger Dawn Zimmer.
Why Elwell?
Elwell, although around for many years, had already lost his most trusted political advisor. You have to remember Elwell spent a significant amount of time with former County Executive Robert Janiszewski at a time when Janiszewski was wired by the FBI.
Janiszewski – as with Solomon Dwek, the feds’ current turncoat – was desperate to set someone up for a fall and could not nail Elwell.
Some insiders suggest that Elwell intends to mount a serious defense that will claim he never took the money Dwek allegedly attempted to bribe him with.
Allegedly, Ron Manzo was the one who unwittingly introduced the FBI informant to Elwell.
Manzo and Elwell have a long history from the days when Manzo operated Ram Insurance and did a significant amount of business with Secaucus municipal government. In 2002, Elwell tried to get the Secaucus Board of Education to switch to Ram Insurance, too, even calling board members individually to lobby on Manzo’s behalf.
“Elwell called me and I told him we would re-interview everybody again,” said then-Board President Paul Amico at the time.
The Manzo-Elwell relationship was also apparently close enough for Manzo to host Elwell family events and Elwell’s political fundraiser at a Nutley catering hall Manzo co-owned. So is it any surprise that some expect Manzo to support the claim that Elwell never received any cash?
Federal authorities tell us Dwek helped steer them through the maze of New Jersey corruption, when in truth, Dwek appears to have tried to bribe everybody possible and that those foolish enough to take what was clearly obvious bait were arrested, while the big fish got away.
As with the Janiszewski case, federal authorities apparently hoped to get more than they actually came away with and so tout this as a major accomplishment. In fact, they largely cleared away dead wood from the forest of corruption, making more room for the serious players to keep operating.
Stack and Christie, perfect together
PolitickerNJ said last week that state Sen. and Union City Mayor Brian Stack’s political fund allegedly took $4,000 in bribes in an FBI sting operation. Insiders in Union City claim that offers were made both to Stack’s civic association and reelection fund, but that Stack’s people refused to accept them.
Many people are spreading rumors in the hopes to bring down their political rivals. Yet if Stack himself was under suspicion, it would be very unlikely that Christopher Christie, the former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and current Republican candidate for governor, would spend the National Night out with Stack in Union City. Christie, of course, may be seeking Stack’s endorsement.
While the arrests of so many public officials at one time may seem like big news, the feds ought to publish the list of the political figures who refused the offers. It may be possible that the list is many times longer than those arrested, showing that most political figures are either too honest or too savvy for the feds to catch.
Secaucus Dems ‘devastated’
Assemblyman Vincent Prieto presided over the Secaucus Democratic Municipal Committee on Aug. 4 as the temporary chairman in an effort to come up with a possible replacement for Dennis Elwell as mayor of Secaucus.
Although Councilman John Reilly was voted by the Town Council as acting mayor, this was a very temporary solution since his regular title as “deputy major” has always been honorary. Secaucus, which has a seven-member council made up of two ward council members from each of the three wards, plus the sitting mayor, has no council president to take over in the event that the mayor is removed for some reason.
The municipal committee has until Aug. 10 to come up with three names to be submitted to the Secaucus Town Council. From this list of any possible registered Democrats, the council must choose an interim mayor. The problem is, the committee has no idea of who to select because they are so shocked by Elwell’s arrest. For a large part, Elwell left the Democratic Party with no political heir.
The Democratic committee, one committee person said, is pretty devastated.
Fortunately it has approximately seven weeks prior to the November election to pick someone to replace Elwell at the top of the mayoral Democratic ticket.
“Most of us know that [mayoral opponent] Michael [Gonnelli] is going to win, but we would like to salvage our council candidates,” this committee person said.
Some committee people are trying to convince former Councilman Richard Kane to head the ticket with hopes of holding the party together.