CHALLENGER CALLS ON WEINBERG TO RETURN CLEAN ELECTIONS MONEY

NIBOT FOR SENATE              

CHALLENGER CALLS ON WEINBERG TO RETURN CLEAN ELECTIONS  FUNDS  

Weinberg Using $300K in Taxpayer Money To Fund Her Political Vendetta

Bergenfield  - State Senate candidate Clara Nibot said her opponent State  Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-37) should return her Clean Elections money because she is wasting taxpayer dollars to boost her position in the Democratic Party and violating the spirit of the Clean Elections law.  

Nibot says Weinberg has clearly used her taxpayer funded campaign account to pay for research into Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero after she agreed to take the taxpayer’s money.   

“Sen. Weinberg has clearly co-mingled Clean Elections money with the money she has raised from businesses, labor unions and professionals. In my mind she has violated the purpose of Clean Elections funds, which is to run a clean election, not to finance an intra-party vendetta,” said Nibot. 

Weinberg can get up to $300,000 through the Clean Election funds paid by taxpayers after she gathered 800 donations of $10 apiece . “The Clean Election money that Sen. Weinberg has taken should be returned to Trenton. The money is being misused,” said Nibot.  “I don’t think we are advancing the cause of clean and fair elections by giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a candidate who is already well-funded  through private donations. 

“It seems Sen.Weinberg wants to have it both ways,” continued Nibot. “She wants to use the corrupt political system to raise money from the special interests and then she wants to take taxpayer money as well.” 

The GOP challenger noted last week that Weinberg has taken tens of thousands of dollars from special interests -- including those companies regulated by her committee -- the Health and Human Services/ Senior citizens committee.

Nibot’s review of Weinberg’s campaign donations shows since 2003 Weinberg has accepted thousands of dollars in donations from NJ Healthcare Political Action Committee, the NJ Optometric PAC and major pharmaceutical companies including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol Meyers and Novartis – a biotechnology firm. She has also taken money from the NJ Podiatry PAC, the NJ Dental Association PAC. The New Jersey Biotechnology PAC, The Funeral Director’s PAC and the North Jersey Doctor’s PAC.  

Two weeks ago, Nibot says she learned that Sen. Weinberg is using campaign funds to conduct exhaustive research into the Bergen County Improvement Authority, The Bergen County Utilities Authority, Bergen County Government and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority. 

She notes that cost of obtaining the documents she requested have, in some cases, exceeded $500. In one case, Weinberg paid the PVSC $184 from the Election Fund for Weinberg for Senate and in another case she paid $584 to the PVSC from the Real Bergen Democrats Association.  In another instance the BCUA spent considerable time to prepare the documents and billed Sen. Weinberg $581, but she has declined to pay the bill or pick up the information she requested. 

Nibot said all these entities are controlled by Democrats and have nothing to do with the senate election  

“If Sen. Weinberg wants to conduct an official probe into these agencies, I welcome that. But it should be done in the course of legislative business not as an election gimmick,” said Nibot.