Record 9/18: Editorial - Unfinished Election

Sunday's Opinion section in the Record featured a guide for readers providing information on the editorial and opinion pages, describing what is included, who the staff members and contributors are and explaining how items are selected for inclusion. The only opinion item included in all of Sunday's paper was this editorial, supporting Teaneck Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg in her efforts to pursue legal redress and have ballots counted that had been disqualified at last Thursday's caucus. See yesterday's Record or click on http://tinyurl.com/8g6ny for the full text of the editorial at the Record's http://www.bergen.com web site (registration required).

EDITORIALS ARCHIVE Unfinished election Sunday, September 18, 2005

Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg is right to appeal her razor-thin loss to Hackensack Police Chief Charles "Ken" Zisa in the contest to replace retiring state Sen. Byron Baer.

The vote was so close among Democratic County Committee members last week that a judge should review whether party officials were right to disqualify five of the ballots.

Mr. Zisa won by four votes on the question of who should fill Mr. Baer's District 37 seat until the end of this year. He won by just one vote on who should be the party's nominee in November to fill the remaining two years of Mr. Baer's term.

Whoever ultimately wins, Ms. Weinberg deserves credit for having the fortitude to take on Bergen County Democratic Party boss Joseph Ferriero, who backed Mr. Zisa.

And U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, the Democratic candidate for governor, scores points for showing his independence from Mr. Ferriero by supporting Ms. Weinberg.

But as this dramatic and important battle of Corzine vs. Ferriero and Weinberg vs. Zisa reaches its end, a crucial sideshow is currently in intermission. For this show to reach a conclusion, the state needs to appoint a special prosecutor.

The show began when Ms. Weinberg asked the state attorney general last week to investigate whether party officials tried to illegally replace five county committee members in Bergenfield prior to the vote on Mr. Baer's replacement. Three of those five Bergenfield Democrats have signed affidavits asserting they never resigned and that the signatures on their supposed resignation letters were forged.

Their complaints are backed up by Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, who officiated at the committee vote last week and who said the resignation letters appeared forged.

This is explosive. If the letters were forged, it could show how far Mr. Ferriero's loyalists would go to win. Forging election documents violates not only election law but also criminal statutes.

The five supposed resignation letters were addressed to Kevin Clancy, party chairman in Bergenfield and a former mayor who resigned after pleading guilty to drunken driving in 1998. Mr. Clancy says the letters are legitimate and that he received them in January.

Normally if there's an alleged violation of election law, the complaint goes to the county elections office. Just one problem with that - Mr. Clancy is one of the county's four elections commissioners.

It's worth noting too that Mr. Clancy also has a second county job as veterans services director and that his combined salary for the two positions is $80,000. A cynic might conclude that Mr. Clancy really owes a lot to Mr. Ferriero for these two positions.

Now, if you can't take an election fraud complaint to the elections office, what about the county prosecutor? Problem there, too. Prosecutor John Molinelli is an ally of Mr. Ferriero and the prosecutor's wife has a job as director of the Bergen County Workforce Investment Board. As of January of this year, county payroll records listed her salary at $93,150.

So how about state Attorney General Peter Harvey? Well, his office's delays in releasing copies of the tapes of South Jersey Democratic boss George Norcross raise questions about how aggressively he would investigate charges involving the organization of another boss, Mr. Ferriero.

That's why acting Governor Codey should push for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor.

Whoever gets this case must investigate thoroughly and quickly. If election fraud occurred, it didn't hurt just the three Democratic county committee members who allege their signatures were forged. It potentially disenfranchised every voter in the 37th District because the party nominee in this heavily Democratic area will very likely win election to the state Senate.

Election fraud always affects more people than those directly involved. It makes a mockery of one of our most precious democratic rights - the right to vote.

Copyright © 2005 North Jersey Media Group Inc.

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