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| Press Room |
| BECK, O’SCANLON AND CASAGRANDE CALL ON CODEY TO DEMAND JAMES, BRYANT RESIGNATIONS 09/16/07 |
| If it’s good enough for Senate President’s running mate, why not two indicted Democrat Senators? 12th District Republican Legislative candidates Jennifer Beck, Declan O’Scanlon and Caroline Casagrande today called on Senate President Richard Codey to demand the resignations of indicted Senators Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant, saying their presence in office while under indictment for corruption called into question the Trenton Democrats supposed commitment to ethics reform. |
| “The fact that Sharpe James and Wayne Bryant are still in office today, with federal indictments hanging over their heads, is what makes New Jersey the butt of jokes on late night TV”, said O’Scanlon. “Dick Codey forced his own running mate, Mims Hackett, to resign because he didn’t want any trouble in his own re-election campaign, yet he allows two indicted Senators to continue to serve and possibly vote on important matters in the upcoming lame duck session of the legislature. Apparently being indicted is like dual officeholding- wrong for some people, but not for others.” Casagrande echoed O’Scanlon’s thoughts, saying “ Governor Corzine is on record saying that he didn’t think James and Bryant should resign because they weren’t up for re-election and the problem ‘would take care of itself’. It’s that kind of lassez-faire attitude, trickling down from the top of the Democrat party, which makes their claims of commitment to real ethics reform ring hollow. The fact that they’re not running for re-election is more of a reason to remove them, not less. If you can’t even call for the resignation of two federally indicted Senators who are going to be out of office in three months, why would anyone believe you’re going to tackle the hard choices facing New Jersey on any issue?” Beck wrote a letter to Codey on Friday after discovering that not only had the two indicted Senators been allowed to keep their seats, they hadn’t even been removed from the committee posts. “Here’s what it has come to in Trenton”,said Beck. “Wayne Bryant, who was indicted for having a no-show job at the scandal-ridden UMDNJ and steering taxpayer funds to them, is still a member of the Senate Education committee, which oversees issues involving colleges and universities. Sharpe James, who was indicted for abuse of taxpayer funds in his position in local government, is still a member of the Community and Urban Affairs committee which has jurisdiction over local government affairs, and is still vice chair of the budget committee. And the same people who have allowed this to continue, the Trenton Democrat leadership, want us to believe that they are committed to honest, ethical government. Quite simply, that flies in the face of almost every action they’ve taken in the last six years, and people know it.” |
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