12th District Republican legislative candidates Jennifer Beck, Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande today criticized Ellen Karcher and Mike Panter for their prime sponsorship of a law which could allow corrupt elected officials like recently indicted Newark Mayor Sharpe James and federally indicted Senator Wayne Bryant to keep their pensions even if convicted of job related crimes.

“For Mike Panter to sponsor a pension forfeiture bill which only affects crimes committed after the legislation passes, while there were well-known and active investigations of at least two prominent members of the legislature (Wayne Bryant and Sharpe James) is unconscionable”, said Casagrande, a Colts Neck attorney. “I’m sure Mike would probably call this another ‘compromise’, but let’s call it what it really was: a cave in to the Democratic leadership to allow two men who were about to be indicted to keep their public pensions. And once again on an important ethics issue, instead of standing up to his leadership- which he constantly claims he does- Mike Panter does what he’s told.”

O’Scanlon pointed out that passing nice-sounding but ineffective ethics legislation was part of a consistent pattern among Trenton Democrats over the last several years.

“How many times have we seen this before? We have a pay to play ‘ban’ which doesn’t fully ban pay to play, a wheeling ‘ban’ which bans wheeling for only half the year, a dual officeholding ban which affects some people and not others, and now a pension forfeiture bill which could allow people like Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant to keep their pensions even if they’re convicted. It’s always the same thing: bumper sticker legislation. It’s designed to sound great in the campaign literature, but it does nothing to address the problems plaguing New Jersey and it just lends weight to people’s perception that public officials can get away with anything.”

Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck was the  sponsor of A-4139 which would have applied retroactively to James and Bryant, applied to all of their public pensions and would have made forfeiture mandatory upon conviction, instead of leaving the decision subject to review.

She echoed O’Scanlon’s sentiment saying “For four years, Ellen Karcher has claimed to be a reformer. Yet time and time again, in deference to her Leadership, she has sponsored or supported these half measures which allow business as usual to continue. We have heard the excuse ‘it’s better than nothing’ so many times that it has practically replaced ‘Liberty and Prosperity’ as New Jersey’s state motto. And while true reform is always held out as being just over the horizon, or past the next election, money is still wheeled all over the state, current dual officeholders can rest assured that their cozy little arrangements wont be disturbed, and now Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant could possibly collect their taxpayer funded multiple pensions regardless of the crimes they’ve committed. That is Ellen Karcher’s true legacy.”

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