Being as concerned as they are about ethics and corruption (over at the offices of the New Hampshire Democrat Party) you’d think Paul ‘Jersey’ Hodes would have refused that $10,000.00 campaign contribution from Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Menendez is a long time benefactor of corrupt SEC violator Goldman Sachs (see below) and being from Jersey’s most corrupt Hudson county Menendez has been linked to any number of ethical "misunderstandings" throughout his career.
What kind of misunderstandings you ask?
Senator Menendez or his office have been implicated in a cozy relationship with a Hudson County land development deal. There have been accusations of hiring a specific contractor at a hospital as a favor to Mr. Menendez to share in a federal contract. Menendez (like many Hodes donors) has a canny knack for having former chiefs of staff–turned lobbyist–cited in investigations where their clients may have been helped by the Senator to get federal contracts. There was even a situation in which his office "appeared" to be (8) pressuring the Fed to take measures to prevent a specific local New Jersey bank from being put into receivership. He has also been under investigation for helping to get approval of a federal contract for a group to whom he rents property.
Then US attorney Chris Christie was appointed to investigate the potential rental corruption deal between Menendez and The North Hudson Community Action Group that had paid Menendez upwards of $300,000.00 over the course of the rental period.
As with most of the Menendez related intrigue, nothing ever seems to come of it, but the implications keep piling up and the incestuous nature of it all is difficult to ignore.
Menendez was the personal appointment of then Governor Jon Corzine to replace himself when he was elected governor and proceeded to screw the state up so badly New Jersey had to elect Republican Chris Christie to fix the cancer of decades of cronyism and fiscal malfeasance.
Oh, and then there’s Menendez connection to corrupt SEC violator and fine payer Goldman Sachs. Goldman has donated almost $97,000.00 dollars to Menendez, who just happens to be on both the Senate Banking and Finance committees. Given these kinds of connections we might be expecting a press release demnading that Hodes return the money. Of course if he returns the Menendez money then he has to return the Schumer money, and the Baucus money, and the Rangel moeny, and the Inouye money, and that’s about 70,000.00 dollars.
But I’m sure–for the sake of consistancy–we can expect something from the democrats on these inappropriate corruption connections any day now. Any day…..any….
Hodespocrisy Part 3, Part 2, part 1, and the preface
