ASSELTA TO VAN DREW: “HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT JOE ROBERTS’ CONFLICT OF INTEREST?”

ASSELTA TO VAN DREW: “HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT JOE ROBERTS’ CONFLICT OF INTEREST?” 

(VINELAND, October 4) -- Senator Nick Asselta -- responding to Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew’s refusal yesterday to explain exactly what he knew about the Joe Roberts-George Norcross ownership of U.S. Vision when he re-introduced legislation that would have benefited them personally by loosening New Jersey’s standards and allowing optometrists, rather than trained eye surgeons, to conduct laser surgery --today challenged Van Drew to explain how he could have been unaware of the controversy surrounding the tainted legislation when he chose to re-introduce it, given the media firestorm that surrounded the legislation.

“Jeff Van Drew’s refusal yesterday to explain exactly what he knew about the Joe Roberts-George Norcross ownership of U.S. Vision speaks volumes. Jeff hasn’t answered because he can’t -- if he says he knew plenty, then he’s acknowledging that he deliberately moved legislation to enrich two of his most powerful patrons; if he says he knew nothing, then he’s acknowledging he was oblivious to what everyone else in the Statehouse knew was a major event.

“Jeff describes his knowledge as limited to what he calls ‘the little bit I read.’ That’s interesting, because there was more than just ‘a little bit’ of material out there for him to read:

• On March 9, 2003, Monica Yant Kinney wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer -- in a column entitled, “Legislator Needs His Eyes Checked” -- that “Roberts … is part owner of U.S. Vision, the nation’s sixth-largest retailer of optical products and services. His partners include South Jersey Democratic Don George Norcross … in 2000, then-stockholders Norcross and Roberts, with an investment group, struck a deal to buy the public company and take it private. The $33 million deal was completed last fall. Roberts owns 17 percent … When pressed about the timing and similarities [to Roberts’ withdrawn legislation], he acknowledged picking up the cause for Roberts … Van Drew, by the way, got $110,000 of his $120,900 campaign contributions in 2001 from the PAC run by the State Democratic Party, which Roberts chaired at the time.”

• On March 10, 2003, Kathy Hennessy of the Associated Press -- in a news report headlined, “Bill Could Let Optometrists Do Surgery” -- wrote, “Ophthalmologists unsuccessfully argued against a bill … that could potentially allow eye care practitioners who do not have degrees as medical doctors to perform laser eye surgery … Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who undergo eight years of training and residency. They can examine eyes, prescribe glasses, medication, and perform surgery. Optometrists hold degrees as optometric doctors. They can prescribe glasses, but not drugs, and they cannot perform surgical procedures.”

• On March 11, 2003, Robert Schwaneberg of the Newark Star-Ledger -- in a report entitled, “Lasers Blur the Line for Eye Doctors in New Jersey” -- quoted Ralph Laciano, Jr., an ophthalmologist: “Optometrists are seeking to circumvent medical education through legislation.” Schwaneberg continued: “He noted that, unlike ophthalmologists, optometrists do not attend medical school or undergo an additional four to seven years of specialty training in hospital internships and residency programs. Lanciano [argued] that ophthalmologists who learn laser surgery have already spent years in residency programs observing all the complications that can develop from conventional eye surgery and learning to recognize and treat them early. “One day late and you lose an eye … you can’t learn that without going through the process,” said Laciano.

“Clearly, anybody who reads newspapers could see there was a major conflict of interest,” Asselta continued. “For Jeff Van Drew to dismiss questions now, as he did then, isn’t merely insulting -- it requires a willing suspension of disbelief. That may work in Hollywood, but it doesn’t translate here in the First District.”

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