State Attorney General Jeff Chiesa is New Jersey’s New U.S. Senator, Effective Monday June 10
Chiesa will serve until the results of the October 16 Special Election are certified.
He will not run for the office.
Jeff Chiesa has served as the Attorney General of New Jersey since January 2012. He received bipartisan support from leaders on both sides of the aisle, and was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the State Senate.
· Attacking The Problem Of Human Trafficking: Chiesa’s office issued a statewide Law Enforcement Directive designed to increase human trafficking investigations and prosecutions, and formed a new Human Trafficking Unit within the Division of Criminal Justice.
· Protecting Children: Chiesa’s office launched a multi-pronged attack on child exploitation crimes, including statewide stings that have resulted in the arrest and indictment of many child pornography offenders. The AG’s office has also worked closely with the Legislature on proposed reforms aimed at toughening penalties for child pornography offenses
· Targeting Gun Violence: As Attorney General, Chiesa has aggressively targeted gun violence in New Jersey through strategic investigations focused on seizing illegal weapons in violent areas, disrupting the supply-chains of those weapons, and aggressively prosecuting criminals involved in the illegal sale and possession of weapons.
o Chiesa’s office implemented the most sweeping gun buyback program in state history which to date has collected more than 10,000 guns off the street, including 1,200 illegal guns.
· Combating Gang Violence: Under Chiesa, the Attorney General’s office has opened 120 new “gangs and organized crime” cases in 2012, filing charges against 285 alleged gang members, drug dealers and other dangerous offenders.
· Cracking Down On Public Corruption: Chiesa’s office filed 40 new public corruption cases in 2012, charging current and former public officials at every level with crimes related to the exploitation of their positions for personal gain.
· Promoting Diversity: Chiesa has personally led a continuing effort to recruit and train a diverse State Police organization. Through this effort, the 152nd State Police class is the most diverse in history.
o Star-Ledger: “New N.J. State Police Class Most Racially Diverse In State History, Attorney General Says”
· Responding To Hurricane Sandy: Chiesa helped lead the State’s Superstorm Sandy response involving handling logistics, rescuing victims from floodwaters, and protecting residents from price-gougers and scam artists. To date, 27 lawsuits have been filed against businesses for alleged fraud.
Chiesa served for two years as Chief Counsel to Governor Christie.
· During Chiesa’s time as Chief Counsel, he helped to guide New Jersey through an extraordinarily difficult budget period, including closing a combined $13.2 billion shortfall in the first six months of the new administration.
· Chiesa was intimately involved in crafting the negotiations to pass landmark reforms such as:
o Historic, bipartisan pension and benefits reform that will save New Jersey taxpayers $120 billion over the next 30 years.
o A 2 percent property tax cap and interest arbitration reform to rein in the cost of government.
o Major education reforms such as the Inter-District School Choice Program and the Urban Hope Act.
o $2.35 billion in tax relief for New Jersey’s job creators.
Chiesa served as Executive Director of Governor Christie’s Transition Team during which he oversaw a comprehensive review of New Jersey government operations.
· Under Chiesa’s guidance, the Christie transition team developed 19 individual reports reviewing the operations of every department, agency and authority in state government.
o Chiesa’s team developed assessments and recommendations to improve, shrink and, in some cases, eliminate wasteful or inefficient government operations.
Chiesa spent seven years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, ultimately serving as the Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney.
· Chiesa was involved in all aspects of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including the management of the Criminal, Civil, Appeals and Special Prosecutions Divisions.
· He led the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecution of several high-profile public corruption cases such as former state Senate President John Lynch.
· He oversaw the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases involving bank robbery, child pornography, human trafficking and identity theft.
· He also served as Counsel to the U.S. Attorney and as Chief of the Public Protection Unit.
Chiesa has over 10 years of experience in private practice.
· Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Chiesa was a partner at the law firm of Dughi and Hewit, where he litigated civil matters, including the representation of medical professionals and hospitals.
· Before joining Governor Christie’s transition team, Chiesa was a partner at the firm of Wolf & Samson.
Chiesa graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1987, and earned his Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America in 1990.
· Chiesa is a native of Bound Brook, New Jersey and currently lives in Branchburg with his wife, Jenny, and their two children, Al (14) and Hannah (12).
· He has served as a Eucharistic minister and taught Sunday School at his church, St Joseph Parish in Raritan Borough, and has coached soccer and basketball for more than eight years in Branchburg.
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Chiesa is hostile to the Second Amendment.
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/anjrpc.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/Legal_Motions___Briefs/NJ_AG_Appellate_Brief_RTC.pdf
without regular lawyers,and US, State, or AG lawyers?? Wonder if things would go better down there in DC if we got back to regular,old “citizen representation”???
That may be the worst pick ever. A hand picked Attorney General who has done nothing worth while since taking office. To boot, he is not even going to run for the seat! The Governor just mailed one in for Booker.
pick!
See ya and won’t miss ya!
Can Mike Halfacre get promoted from ABC director under the AG to Chiesa’s job? While we still wound’t have a pro2A US Senator, at least we’d have an AG who understands and respects firearm’s laws and won’t write opinions against the Constitution or the rights of the People.
Did Christie pledge to make some campaign appearances with the eventual Republican nominee -no matter who it is? If not, will he?
I would like to announce that I have decided to become a Republican. I have had my fill with Dems!
Joe Rullo filed with FEC today to run in special US Senate election.
For once and only once I must say that Joe Rullo would have been a better choice than Chiesa. The only thing Chiesa got done as Attorney General was pounding Birdsall.
where’s he gonna go after this stint, at 47? Guess just a big law firm, and let’s face it, he is not the first one who beat a firm or some officials to death, above and beyond what was necessary, to advance their career, is he?…
Should be some tension in the room when the Gov shows up for Romney’s retreat tonight. A couple of days of listening to Romney, Rand Paul and Paul Ryan and Christie will be thinking he would rather be back in NJ having a root canal.
And that’s about all Rullo is going to be able to get done.
Rullo defeated the Tea Party candidate by thousands of votes in last years US Senate primary 2012. Additionally, he won straw poll of East Jersey Tea Party one of the largest groups in the state. What I really like about Joseph Rudy Rullo is he ran against the GOP line, yet managed to get the county line GOP freeholder candidates in Union County. He is able to split groups in half with his passion, intelligence, & knowledge of the issues. What many don’t know is he came within 100 votes of beating Kyrillos in Salem County where he had huge support with Greenwich Tea Party. This is going to be one interesting special election.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
You are one blind syncophant aren’t you?
Do Rullo put you in a room with tin foil hats on and play recordings of the talking points you are to spout her on MMM and other blogs?
Is there really more than one of you Rullobots or is just one sick puppy. I remember some dufus following Rullo around with Rullo’s “man bag.” The guy looked like a sick puppy in love with his owner, but was constantly put in the corner by Rullo.
Signed,
Silence Dogood, Redux
From the look of it right now, Lonegan is probably going to be the GOP Senate candidate. He has support from some in the establishment GOP and most of the conservative grassroots!
Don’t be so quick to anoint Lonegan. At best he will get maybe half of the Tea Party vote. Rullo will pull Tea Party votes also. I am waiting to see if the “establishment” puts up a candidate. Unless of course, there are no takers against a strong Booker. The GOP may sit that one out.
Is that comment payback for Lonegan’s lack of financial support for the “vaunted” RC4L slate?
And what, no apologies for your foul comments the other day?
Jim Granelli
Jim,
Of course it is payback. That is what Babs and team are all about. It is not about good government or lower taxes – it is about power. It is about being relavent. It is about being at the cool kids table. It is about not getting a job at the Sheriff’s Department. If it had to do with good government they would have gone door to door to get people to vote for Joe, Amy, Declan, Shuan, Tom and Serena. Because if it were about moving their alleged agenda of lower taxes and smaller government they would be endorsing the most conservative guy in NJ which is Steve.
So what we need to all do is stop listening and stop responding to them. Lets start ignoring them and maybe they will just go away and find another group to latch on to.
Then maybe we can right this state and make it a safe and affordable place to live and raise a family.
I thought a Rollo was that small chocolate candy you can get at WaWa.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/alter-2014-obama-center/2013/06/06/id/508446
“Republicans have a good chance to win back the Senate.”
As we won’t be able to help without a good stable of candidates. Forget Lonegan, and certainly forget Rullojerk. We need a strong, Conservative woman candidate.
Jim Granelli
C’mon Art,
Do these issues sound like good government?
The Republican Party has had monopoly control of the Monmouth Freeholder Board almost constantly for as long as anyone can remember. And this power has resulted in almost continuous corruption and scandal. In just this past decade we have had numerous issues.
1. In 2002, 2005, and 2007 we had the Operation “Bid Rig” trilogy that involved multiple indictments including several Monmouth County officials up to and including the 39 year Republican Freeholder Harry Larrison- who died before a trial for bribery was held. Then US Attorney Chris Christie said at the time that public corruption in Monmouth County ran “both wide and deep.”
2. In 2008 issues were raised with Sheriff, now Lt Governor, Kim Guadagno’s office regarding payroll and pension record keeping. The Public Employees’ Retirement System voted in May 2011 to call for a criminal investigation and the case has been referred to the Republican Attorney General’s Division of Criminal Justice.
3. In the 2009 election current Sheriff Shaun Golden denied his Democratic opponent’s contention that housing federal detainees in the Monmouth County jail for the federal government for $104 per day was causing expensive overtime, costing the County money, and should be stopped. The actual cost of housing prisoners is about $165 per day. In 2013 Sheriff Golden stopped housing ICC federal detainees to reduce overtime and some of its $70 million costs.
4. In 2010 Ethics laws were repealed. 2009 was the lone year in recent history that the Democrats had a Freeholder Board majority. In November of that year, based on a blue ribbon panel recommendation, the Democrats passed a resolution (over Republican objection!) to create a six-member, nonpartisan, independent ethics board that would serve without compensation. In January 2010, at the first meeting after Republicans regained majority Board control, Republicans revoked that Ethics resolution. (FYI, Monmouth County has 30 Boards and Commissions including ones for Addiction, Horses, Mental Health, Mosquitoes, Recreation, Solid Waste, and Trees.)
5. In 2011 the Brookdale College scandal was exposed. The President was found abusing expenses, the college controller and attorney were criticized for not properly monitoring his activities, and the Board seemed not engaged in any meaningful supervision. The Monmouth County Freeholders, who approved and provided over $20 million per year of subsidy to the college, also seemed to lack any critical oversight. And the political ties and coziness seem extreme. Howard Birdsall was the long term Chairman of the Brookdale Board, his wife was reported as working on Freeholder campaigns, and the College attorney was Freeholder Burry’s campaign treasurer.
6. In 2012 County Clerk Election issues were highlighted. The Democratic County Clerk candidate pointed out that the Republican County Clerk was responsible for “randomly” selecting the most favorable ballot position for the Republicans in 30 of the last 33 years. That “random” sequence has a probability of 1 in over 1.5 million!
7. In 2013 we had the Lucas million dollar payment controversy. Andrew Lucas was the mayor of Manalapan. Part of his official duty was acquiring open space and farmland for preservation by the town. Instead he purchased approximately 97 acres of farmland for his own account and then, about nine days later, offered to sell the preservation rights back to the town. The transaction on its face is suspect. The land had to be appraised. The best evidence for appraisal purposes is recent, arms-length sales. Yet Lucas refused to inform the town, the county or the state what price he paid for the land only nine days before he effectively asked for such an appraisal. Neither the Freeholders nor the town council made approval of the transaction subject to obtaining such important and easily available information. Still, we know that the vast bulk of the land was purchased in 2004 for approximately $650,000 and that some property in the same area is today selling at or below 2004 prices. And Lucas was an active Republican political fund raiser- including for people who were voting on his transaction. In the face of all of this information and wide public criticism and condemnation, the all Republican Town Council and the all Republican Freeholder Board approved this transaction and a $1.2 million payment to Lucas. It was a particularly shameful moment.
8. And now in 2013 we have Birdsall again and more pay to play issues raised. Howard Birdsall and several executives have been indicted for widespread illegal political donations presumably in expectation of receiving government contracts. Their tactic was to make many small individual donations below the publicly reportable amount. Birdsall, a significant contributor to county Republicans, has received millions of dollars of contracts approved by the Freeholder Board. Enough is enough!
How about signing your name to that one.
Jim Granelli
totally unfair, inaccurate, lies and blathering nonsense, that has once again been ripped from the:”we are broke, bereft of new or valid ideas, and desperate for attention and free headlines”, M.C. Democratic play book!..one can predict the exact lines they will spew,with that tired old litany!..Way to again imitate past losers like Mallett, D’amico, and all the other no- name Dem candidates of the past decade.. Disturbing that their change in chair doesn’t have seemed to raise the level of accuracy, info, or discourse,at all..
What part of it is inaccurate? nonsensical, and/or lies…just wonderin…..
All those so- called points are so inaccurate and over-generalized, and have been read or written every campaign- one can’t correct all the misinformation on a blog..the Dems, rather than just putting out “better” ways to run things, and running on their personal merit and accomplishments,blab on and on, and use the same character assassinations,and repeat the same list in the same tone,every year- which, since you’re counting years, the large majority of voters have resoundingly defeated because, they really LIKE their county, and the way it has been run,and folks are still moving here in droves,to enjoy the great quality of life all those years of majority Republican boards provided.. Keep it up, it doesn’t matter- you will lose again,in 2013.
Rullo can buy an ad to promote his campaign.
Edited by Art
@Go Rudy – According to the State of NJ Election records, Kyrillos beat Rullo in Salem County by almost 250 votes, and wasn’t “within 100 votes”. What difference does Salem County make, with just over 1,800 votes in a Republican primary, when counties like Bergen, Monmouth, Morris, and Ocean each brought in more than 15,000 votes .. and Kyrillos averaged 82.6% of their total 87k votes to Rullo’s 6.6%?!
inaccurate? over-generalized? Please point out which points are inaccurate and over-generalized. Please tell me what the accurate stories are. Just askin…..
For one point 7. The property involved in the Lucas transaction was on the County preservation list for years as a prime property for inclusion. The estimate used by the County was the lowest of the three provided. In addition, no applicant in the [past has ever disclosed the purchase price and that information is not even part of the application.
With the Watchdog series regarding the Guadagno/Golden pension fraud issues. I don’t think anyone can complain about the lack of specifics on that one. The author even embedded hyperlinks with the evidence gathered through OPRA requests.
I also thought #5 was pretty specific based on my readings in the Asbury Park Press and Freeholder (ya gotta love that Irish Bastard) John Curley’s claims. He (JC) was in an excellent position to gather information regarding the Brookdale scandal.
have no idea how the appointment of the Gov’s friend gets one to the anti-GOP diatribe, but let me help you here: if Monmouth is so bad, just friggin’ move.. Like, to Hudson, Passaic, or Essex: you’d be much more comfortable there: paying higher taxes, being more crowded and polluted, and helping the Dem machines keep the dead and illegals voting! – twice! The rest of us truly appreciate our Triple A bond rating, better than the USA now, and the best parks, libraries, roads, services, a nd schools in the state- thanks to the large majority of great Republican leaders!
One poster said it was over-generalized and inaccurate–so far no one has said how or why it’s inaccurate. Now I’m hearing about the bond rating; to that I say: aaaay!!! Now, how or why is it inaccurate?
Just askin….
as it keeps getting reiterated during this campaign,again, by the lackluster Dem candidates: stay tuned, come to meetings, read the mailings before you throw them on the recycling pile, and come on out to the debates as the election unfolds- and, after all the same garbage is beaten to death yet again, the end result will be another big win for the Monmouth GOP, because you see, that crap is longone water under the bridge, the very few bad eggs are gone and paid their penalties , and all is really pretty damn right, in our little world.. Heading out to one of our great shore towns now, for good views and a great meal, and you should do the same! Happy summer!