Harold Hoffman

About twenty five years ago, former Associated Press Trenton Bureau Chief John Kolesar wrote a story for New Jersey Monthly listing the biggest political scandals in New Jersey history. Among the best: the scam in which some Burlington County Republican leaders, including former Acting Governor Clifford Powell, bought two Delaware River bridges for $8 million and sold them the same day to the county for $12 million; the 1872 scandal when the Assembly Speaker forged an amendment to a bill the legislature had passed that would have broken the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline monopoly in New Jersey; the 1899 gubernatorial election when Hudson County produced a 14,000-vote margin for the successful Democratic candidate, including 10,000 votes from people were deceased or non-existent. (67 Democratic election workers went to jail); in 1871, the Jersey City Treasurer was found to have looted the city treasury, but law enforcement officials could nail him, he beat it to Mexico, where a bandit relieved him of his booty; and Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague's entire career, in which he never made a salary higher than $7,500 but left an estate worth a couple of million dollars.

New Jersey has a medium-sized controversy brewing: the naming of Route 23 after Robert Roe, who represented New Jersey in Congress from 1969 to 1993 and served as Chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee. The Legislature almost unanimously (only Ellen Karcher voted no) approved the bill last year, and Governor Jon Corzine signed it – but now people are paying attention because of a complaint levied by a Morris County man whose wife and daughter were seriously injured in a 1993 car accident involving Roe, who was driving drunk at the time (a breathalyzer showed him at .17, well beyond the .10 legal limit). Roe entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors to avoid serious charges, and paid the family a settlement of more than $500,000.

For those who mock the great State of New Jersey, poking fun of the so-called "Culture of Corruption," consider this spin:

* A Governor of New Jersey has never been convicted of a crime, although Harold Hoffman, a Republican who served from 1935 to 1938, made a posthumous admission that he systematically stole tax dollars for years.

* It's been 26 years since a New Jersey Congressman was indicted. Frank Thompson, Jr., a 13-term Democrat from Trenton, was convicted in the Abscam scandal. Democrat Henry Helstoski was acquitted on his 1975 corruption charge and later went on to serve as the Superintendent of Schools in North Bergen.

* Only two United States Senators from New Jersey have actually served prison time: Harrison Williams, a four-term Democrat who was convicted in Abscam and resigned in 1981; and Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from 1799 to 1805, who was accused of conspiring with Aaron Burr to commit treason in 1807. Dayton, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was released and never brought to trial, and seven years later made a political comeback when he won a State Assembly seat.

About twenty years ago, former Associated Press Trenton Bureau Chief John Kolesar wrote a story for New Jersey Monthly listing the biggest political scandals in New Jersey history. Among the best: the scam in which some Burlington County Republican leaders, including former Acting Governor Clifford Powell, bought two Delaware River bridges for $8 million and sold them the same day to the county for $12 million; the 1872 scandal when the Assembly Speaker forged an amendment to a bill the legislature had passed that would have broken the Pennsylvania Railroad's mainline monopoly in New Jersey; the 1899 gubernatorial election when Hudson County produced a 14,000-vote margin for the successful Democratic candidate, including 10,000 votes from people were deceased or non-existent. (67 Democratic election workers went to jail); in 1871, the Jersey City Treasurer was found to have looted the city treasury, but law enforcement officials could nail him, he beat it to Mexico, where a bandit relieved him of his booty; and Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague's entire career, in which he never made a salary higher than $7,500 but left an estate worth a couple of million dollars.

But the best scandal, Kolesar says, involved Governor Harold Hoffman. President Franklin Roosevelt had established the unemployment compensation system while Hoffman was Governor in the 1930's. Hoffman appointed the State Unemployment Compensation Commission and places his political allies as commission members. They established an $18,000-a-year annual salary, which at the time was 80% higher than the Governor's salary. The commission took a long time in their search for a Director, and when Hoffman's term expired, he got the job. Hoffman made a deathbed confession that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in that job.

The death of legendary Hudson County political boss William Vincent Musto poses some interesting questions for several New Jersey officials: will U.S. Senator Robert Menendez attend the funeral of his former mentor, the way then-Vice President Harry S. Truman flew to Kansas City to pay his respects to Thomas Prendergast, the Missouri political boss who gave Truman his start in politics before his own corruption conviction? Will Governor Jon Corzine authorize state flags to fly at half-staff in memory of Musto, as is the custom of Governors when a former state legislator dies? Will Senate President Richard Codey and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts allow tributes to the man who served seventeen years in the Senate and nineteen years in the Assembly, as the Legislature traditionally does following the death of a former colleague?

There is some precedent: a portrait of former Governor Harold Hoffman still hangs in the Statehouse, despite Hoffman's posthumous admission that he was a thief -- he had stolen money almost from the time he entered politics. (Harold G. Hoffman High School in South Amboy, where the corrupt ex-Governor began his political career as Mayor, has not changed their name.) A bust of former Vice President Spiro Agnew sits in the U.S. Capitol, even though Agnew resigned his office in disgrace.

A portrait of former Governor James E. McGreevey, who resigned from office in November 2004, has reportedly been completed but does not yet hang in the Statehouse. Addressing the General Assembly after taking the oath of office, Assemblywoman Evelyn Williams praised one of her predecessors, Jackie Mattison, who had been removed from office following a criminal conviction. (Mattison is back in politics, sort of, doing redevelopment projects in Newark with the blessing of his old mentor, Sharpe James; Williams was arrested for shoplifting a week after taking office and never returned to the Statehouse.)

John Gregorio, Musto's colleague in the State Senate and the Mayor of Linden, left office following his own criminal conviction in 1983; a pardon during the final days of Governor Thomas Kean's term allowed Gregorio to resume his political career a year later. Another onetime Musto colleague, State Senator/Camden Mayor Angelo Erichetti, who went to prison for his role in the Abscam scandal, has attended some South Jersey political events in recent years, even being photographed with a former Governor and a sitting Superior Court Judge.

Should a criminal conviction automatically disqualify former public officials from recognition in death? In the current political climate, it is fashionable to attack the so-called culture of corruption. It may be up to Menendez, Corzine, Codey and Roberts to set that standard of what type of memorial tributes with go to Musto and the increasingly growing number of ex-felons who once held high public office in this state.

They might want to take some advice from Donald Scarinci, a powerful North Jersey lawyer and Democratic leader who spent 3 1/2 years as an aide to Musto. Scarinci issued an incredibly classy statement that might set the tone for how the tributes should go: "Bill Musto became a part of my life, but I grieved the loss of the Bill Musto I knew, loved and will always remember in 1982. I have not seen or spoken to him since then, but today I said a prayer that God will welcome him home and that his family may take comfort in knowing that he sleeps in peace."

For those who mock the great State of New Jersey, poking fun of the so-called "Culture of Corruption," consider this spin:

* A Governor of New Jersey has never been convicted of a crime, although Harold Hoffman, a Republican who served from 1935 to 1938, made a posthumous admission that he systematically stole tax dollars for years.

* It's been 25 years since a New Jersey Congressman was indicted. Frank Thompson, Jr., a 13-term Democrat from Trenton, was convicted in the Abscam scandal. Democrat Henry Helstoski was acquitted on his 1975 corruption charge and later went on to serve as the Superintendent of Schools in North Bergen.

* Only two United States Senators from New Jersey have actually served prison time: Harrison Williams, a four-term Democrat who was convicted in Abscam and resigned in 1981; and Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from 1799 to 1805, who was accused of conspiring with Aaron Burr to commit treason in 1807. Dayton, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was released and never brought to trial, and seven years later made a political comeback when he won a State Assembly seat.