Sabrin Filed Ethics Complaint Against Sweeney For Lobbying
Murray Sabrin, PhD raised questions about Senate President Steve Sweeney’s potentially conflicting roles as a labor leader and state legislator months before he considered running for U.S. Senate. If his ethics complaint is politically motivated, the complaint itself was not made to boost his Senate candidacy. But the fact that he is shedding a public light on it now, over three months after he first raised the issue, is an effort to raise his public profile to support his candidacy.
But if Sabrin thought his efforts against Sweeney would help him garner support with the GOP establishment for the Senate nomination, he is mistaken. Former Acting Govenor/Senate President Don DiFrancesco, still a power player in the establishment, defended Sweeney in the Chasing New Jersey report (video below) that brought Sabrin’s complaint to public light.
Sabrin says that Sweeney’s employment as General Vice President of the International Association of Iron Workers, where he earns over $200,000 per year, is a conflict with his role as Senate President because he lobbies senators that he overseas.
DiFrancesco told Chasing New Jersey’s Sibile Marcellus that Sweeney is “not lobbying the legislature, he’s in government relations.”
Posted: March 6th, 2014 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: ethics, Murray Sabrin, Stephen Sweeney | Tags: Chasing New Jersey, Don DiFrancesco, International Association of Iron Workers, John Wallace, Joint Committee on Ethical Standards, Maci Levin Hochman, Murray Sabrin, Sibile Marcellus, Steve Sweeney | Comments Off on Sabrin Filed Ethics Complaint Against Sweeney For Lobbying