When Robert Menendez arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2006, he was a relative pauper in a chamber often called a millionaires’ club. The New Jersey Democrat ranked 97th out of 100 senators in terms of his personal wealth, according to financial records filed that year and compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
So Menendez’s decision last month to use his personal funds to reimburse a prominent political contributor $58,500 for two flights to the Dominican Republic came at a major cost. The repayment amounts to between 32 percent and 87 percent of the assets Menendez reported holding in bank accounts and stock, according to his latest financial-disclosure form, which was filed last year.
Menendez repaid Florida eye doctor and political donor Salomon Melgen only after his free flights aboard Melgen’s plane became public and the subject of a Senate ethics complaint. A local New Jersey Republican group filed a complaint last November, alleging the senator had broken Senate rules by “repeatedly flying on a private jet to the Dominican Republic, and other locations.” Menendez reimbursed Melgen the $58,500 two months later, on Jan. 4, according to his office.
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Government watchdogs are dubious. They say Menendez’s financial situation adds fuel to questions about his motives and whether the free flights he accepted were a simple oversight.
“For a senator that’s not a Rockefeller, that’s real money,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “It kind of makes you wonder.… If he knew in advance that the trips were going to cost him $60,000, would he have done it?”
In the years after the Jack Abramoff scandal, which involved trips abroad for politicians, McGehee said it “stretches credibility” that Menendez was unaware he was receiving a gift while boarding a private flight to a Caribbean island. “You’re about to walk on a private plane, and you’re a public official—and that doesn’t occur to you?” she said.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, another watchdog group, was even less charitable.
“He waited until he was caught to pay them back,” she said. “If you rob a bank—and you’re caught—you don’t say, ‘Take the money back and forget about it.’ ”
Doherty says he maintained the highest ethical standards. Charges Councilman Jim Bean with his own conflict
UPDATED
Belmar Councilman Jim Bean, a Republican, says that Mayor Matt Doherty, a Democrat, “kind of lied” when he told MMM that he recused himself from voting on the borough’s contract with AshBrit, the Florida company that was hired by the Christie administration for Superstorm Sandy cleanup.
We asked Doherty if he had recused himself from voting on the borough’s business with AshBrit because we had documentation that his wife, Maggie Moran, was acting as a sales agent for the company in its efforts to secure lucrative business in cleaning up municipalities impacted by Sandy. He said he did. But that was not the whole story, according to Bean, who said that the borough council’s vote to authorize payments to AshBrit occurred two weeks after Doherty signed the contract.
Bean sent along an email exchange between him and Doherty to back up his complaint:
Matthew J. Doherty
11/11/12
Councilman Bean,
Because we are operating in a Declared State of Emergency, I have the authority to execute contracts and appropriate money as I deem necessary for the welfare and safety of the of the town during this emergency.
Please refer to Local Finance Notice 2012-29 from NJDCA if you have any further questions.
Matthew J. Doherty
From: Jim Bean
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 12:45:08 -0500
To: Matt Doherty; Bill Young
Subject: info
Mayor, I am concerned with some of the contracts that I have heard have been signed. I was also informed that the generators provided by Broadco are now being replaced with yet another company. I would like to know what contacts were signed for how much and when also where the money is being appropriated from since no vote was held to provide you with these funds.
Please respond by email the best way possible to get me this information.
Jim Bean
Doherty repsonded by saying he never signed any contracts with AshBrit. Nor did he make the decision to hire the firm. Instead, he delegated that responsibility to the then Borough Administrator Bill Young. “I told Bill to choose whomever he wanted, but he would be held responsible for their performance. ” He provided MMM with a copy of the contract with AshBrit, signed by Young on behalf of Belmar.
Bean has his own conflict regarding AshBrit, according to Doherty, “What I do find as ironic, is that Councilman Bean works for Stavola who did work for Ashbritt in Sea Bright, while Bean voted to give Ashbritt a contract in Belmar. That is a clear conflict of interest.”
The New Jersey Local Finance Board (LFB), a part of the Department of Community Affairs found fault in the Marlboro Ethic Board’s (MTEB) investigation into conflict of interest charges file against Councilwoman Randi Marder. LBF remanded the matter back to MTEB for “additional investigation and application of the appropriate legal standard.”
The Christie Administration released the following statement regarding AshBrit’s contract with the State for the cleanup from Superstorm Sandy:
Taking Emergency and Long-Term Action To Assist Debris Removal
Competitively Bid Emergency Contract With AshBritt Allowed New Jersey Towns To Take Immediate Action In Addressing Debris Removal In An Efficient And Responsible Manner
________________________________________________
AshBritt Had Extensive Experience And Unique Capabilities To Respond To Major Disasters:
Christie will be in Union Beach tomorrow for his “mobile cabinet.” He is scheduled to address the press at 11:15am at the Union Beach Fire Hose Company #1, 1224 Florence Ave.
Media bias evident when contrasting coverage of allegations against Oxley to allegations against Menendez
Former Monmouth County Sheriff Joe Oxley will finally get a hearing on his nomination to become a Superior Court Judge.
The Star Ledgeris reporting that Senate Democrats have reached a “blockbuster deal” to hold hearings on 20 judicial nominations, including Oxley’s, this week. The Senate Judiciary Committee has been sitting on these nominations with no action for months and New Jersey’s court system is backed up due to 55 judicial vacancies on the Superior Court level.
The Ledger is characterising Oxley’s nomination as “controversial” based upon their own report of a leaked deposition transcript wherein convicted fraudster Soloman Dwek said that Oxley gave him insider information regarding foreclosures in exchange for campaign contributions. The FBI investigated Dwek’s allegations and like many other of his tales, found that they were without merit.
The Ledger obviously thinks nothing of smearing a Republican’s good name based on allegations that have been investigated and dismissed, yet as we have seen since early November, they’ve been hiding from the public Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Menendez alleged ethics violations and patronage of underage victims of prostitution.
Is Soloman Dwek a more credible source than State Senator Sam Thompson? Thompson filed an ethics complaint against Menendez on November 3rd, 2012 yet there was no mention of it in the Ledger until last week after the FBI raided the office of Menendez’s friend and campaign contributor Dr. Salomom Malgen in Florida.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and much of the left stream media has justified their lack of coverage of the Menendez scandal because of “the source,” the conservative website The Daily Caller. MMM has learned that The Daily Caller’s source shopped the Menendez story to The Star Ledger before going to The Caller.
There would be no controversy over Oxley’s nomination had The Star Ledger declined to turn a politically motivated leaked of Dwek’s allegations into a salacious story.
Shame on The Star Ledger for smearing the good name and threatening the career of Joe Oxley based on the word of Soloman Dwek while ignoring the words of Sam Thompson and giving Bob Menendez political cover.
Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, and Senate President Steve Sweeney told The Star Ledger that they are going to investigate the lucrative no-bid state contract that AshBrit received from the Christie Administration for Superstorm Sandy clean up and the well connected lobbyists the company used to sell their premium priced services to municipal officials from Sandy ravaged communities.
“We already had questions about how Sandy relief money was being spent, and these findings raise those questions to a new level,” Prieto told The Star-Ledger. “This money is supposed to be spent properly to benefit New Jersey residents and communities devastated by Sandy, not become a feeding frenzy for lobbyists and an excuse to bypass regulations on business, the environment and pay-to-play.”
As a conservative, it warms my heart to see Democrats fighting wasteful spending. Maybe Trenton really has been turned upside down.
As a skeptic, I expect that whatever hearings the Democrats hold will be done with the intention of denting Governor Christie’s substantial Sandy related armor going into the November election.
“This is not 911. You cannot just simply call and expect within two minutes to have a team in place. It takes time,” Panetta said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Surprisingly, 2010 congressional candidate Scott Sipprelle was leading the poll by a wide margin before we took it down this morning. Sipprelle had 39% if the votes, followed by State Senator Joe Kyrillos with 19%. Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno and Congressman Chris Smith each had 12%. Here are the results of the original poll.
We’ve added former Highlands Mayor Anna Little’s name to the mix because we had a couple of complaints that she was excluded.
