CHALLENGER SAYS SEN. WEINBERG IS NOT A REAL REFORMER

NIBOT FOR SENATE              

CHALLENGER SAYS SEN. WEINBERG IS NOT A REAL REFORMER

SENATOR HAS BENEFITTED FROM CORRUPT TRENTON SYSTEM

Weinberg Has Taken Money From Health Industry & BCDO

BERGEN COUNTY – State Senate candidate Clara Nibot said State Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-37) is a little late to the New Jersey reform debate and question the senator’s motives for announcing her reform agenda Tuesday.

She’s a ‘Johnny come lately’ to the reform initiative in New Jersey and voters should not be fooled by her motives,” said Nibot.  Weinberg’s Republican challenger said the senator had two terms in the Assembly and two in the senate to make reforms and failed to do so.

“Sen. Weinberg is a beneficiary of the corrupt system of government in New Jersey. She has advanced her career working with the Democrat Party machine, now all of sudden she wants to wear the cloak of a reformer, That’s hypocritical,” said Nibot.  

The GOP candidate said Weinberg’s true motivation now is to embarrass Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero and to improve her position in the Democratic Party power structure, not to help the taxpayers of New Jersey. 

“Sen. Weinberg is a creature of the corrupt political system she is now saying needs to be changed.  But where was she before? I’ll tell you where. She was like everyone else in Trenton, taking tens of thousands of dollars from special interests -- including those companies regulated by her committee,” said Nibot.  

Weinberg ‘s sits on the Health and Human Services/ Senior citizens committee, which regulates nursing homes, the pharmaceutical industry and hospitals. 

MONEY FROM HEALTH INDUSTRY         

Nibot’s review of Weinberg’s campaign donations shows the senator has taken thousands of dollars from firms or associations that her committee regulates. 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.  

BAN DONATIONS  

Nibot said one of the reforms she would like to see instituted but that Weinberg has failed to mention, would be a ban legislators ability to take money from industries regulated by the committees they sit on. 

“How can she call herself a reformer when she is taking tens of thousands of dollars from companies that are clearly attempting to buy her influence,” asked Nibot.   

Nibot also pointed out that Weinberg has been the beneficiary of financial support from the Democratic Party and its boss Joseph Ferriero. Weinberg took $1,500 from the Bergen County Democratic Organization in 2005 and $500 from BCDO attorney Dennis Oury – a man she now criticizes for his stance on pay-to-play.

The senator also took $1,000 from Sen. Joseph Coniglio, her colleague on the State Government committee, who is the target of a federal investigation into state funds being directed to Hackensack Hospital – an institute regulated by Weinberg’s Health Committee.

“I don’t see Sen. Weinberg distancing herself from Sen. Coniglio and I don’t see shedding any light on how Hackensack Hospital got over $1 million in state grants at the time Sen. Coniglio was employed there as a consultant,” said Nibot. 

“The bottom line is that Sen. Weinberg is no reformer. She is a politician who built her career on a corrupt system that she managed to exploit to her advantage,” added Nibot.

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