NEW JERSEY RANKS HIGH IN CORRUPTION, SURVEY SAYS

One Local Official Has a Plan to Change All That

Maybe South Jersey political boss George Norcross is, indeed, a racketeer running a “criminal enterprise,” as Attorney General Matt Platkin asserted in indicting the wealthy Camden insurance executive, though the judge didn’t agree. Or perhaps Norcross is just a bullying businessman who uses threats, insider connections, intimidation, and blackmail-style “persuasion,” the kind that would make Tony Soprano jealous, to get his way.

But, as you’ll see below, those sorts of tactics seem de rigueur for the Garden State.

Platkin is appealing. “We disagree strongly with the trial court’s decision, and we are appealing immediately,” he said. “After years in which the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently cut back on federal public corruption law, and at a time in which the federal government is refusing to tackle corruption, it has never been more important for state officials to take corruption head on.”

And when former Senator Bob Menendez was caught by the FBI with wads of cash in his jacket pockets and gold bars in his home, it was a parody of the corrupt New Jersey politician that sadly comes up over and over in books, TV shows and movies. But is New Jersey really that corrupt? And is it more corrupt than other states?

The answer is yes, according to Oguzhan Dincer, a professor at Illinois State University and director of its Institute for Corruption Studies. Dincer has a book coming out next month titled, Corruption in America: A 50 Ring Circus. According to his research, New Jersey is one of the ten most corrupt states, along with Illinois, New York, Missouri, Oregon, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Maryland.

His assessment is based on data collected from the Justice Department Office of Public Integrity – a federal office now under attack by the Trump administration, and who’s chief was recently forced out. Dincer used that office’s data, looking at convictions of officials for corruption, and he and his colleague also interviewed reporters in all 50 states over a five-year time period on their perception of corruption locally.

Dincer’s work is echoed by numerous surveys and rankings of corruption on a state-by-state basis. According to researchers in New York, New Jersey ranked as the eighth most corrupt state. A Forbes study listed New Jersey as ninth worst. A report by Monmouth University put New Jersey in the top five worst. The Providence Journal, commenting on Rhode Island’s corruption ranking, also put New Jersey fifth, as did the Washington Post. And NJ.com described a “five decade record” of New Jersey corruption, including the lawlessness of Jersey City boss Frank Hague, Abscam in the early 1980s, then-Governor Jim McGreevey’s wrongdoing, the 2009 Bid Rig III sweep, Robert “the Torch” Torricelli’s illegal campaign cash, and lots more – up to and including Senator Menendez. And then, of course, there’s Camden’s George Norcross.

So why is New Jersey more corrupt than so many other states? There are “deep determinants” and “proximate determinants,” he said, in an interview with The New Jersey Democrat. The deep determinants include the political culture in a state, Dincer said, which play a huge role. “New Jersey is an individualistic state and individualistic political culture. Politics is basically business. People enter politics to advance their own interest. It's a market arena. People expect politicians to address their own interests, and corruption to a certain degree is accepted and expected. If you look at all these most corrupt states, New Jersey, New York, these are all individualistic states.”

But political corruption has a cost to taxpayers, he warned. “The services that you receive every day include an added corruption surcharge embedded in them, so you don't notice it. You're paying a higher price for your schools, and you don't see that.” Because political corruption in the United States is on a larger scale than in many other countries, where there are petty bribes for permits or driver’s licenses, people often don’t see it as a major voting issue, Dincer explains.

Corruption flourishes when there are no press watchdogs exposing it and when there are no political costs to it, he said. These are the proximate causes of corruption and also how to end it. “If voter participation is not there, if the news coverage is not there, then it's very easy for politicians to actually buy votes. It’s easier to buy votes on the local level.” He found that in states with lower corruption, which include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, the Dakotas, Colorado, and Utah, there was higher voter turnout. “They're watching what politicians are doing because their expectation from the government is a lot higher.”

Where to start to address the corruption issue? James Solomon, a Jersey City councilman running for mayor, has proposed some answers. “When developers and politically connected insiders receive special treatment – whether it’s tax abatements, no-bid contracts, or no-show jobs – everyday residents pay the price through higher property taxes and worse public services,” he told The New Jersey Democrat. Solomon warns that “our state leaders recently gutted our pay-to-play and transparency laws, to help keep themselves entrenched in power.”

The core of Solomon’s proposal would be the first ever independent municipal Inspector General, empowered to investigate corruption and malfeasance. The IG would decide what to investigate, have subpoena and investigative powers, issue reports, refer people for civil and criminal prosecution. The IG could only be removed by the City Council for cause.

While he applauded this proposal, Dincer warned the IG would need strong teeth to carry out the job, many states have ethics commissions but rarely have enough resources.

Solomon’s other proposals focus on making government much more transparent. Jersey City would become the first municipality in the state to have a public database of all contracts awarded by the city. He wants to publish regularly requested government documents, minutes of meetings, licenses and other activities and stream public meetings. To decrease reliance on campaign contributions from people who want something from the city, he would give local officials access to matching funds and make information on campaign contributions to officials more easily available to the public.

And, in view of the fact that local newspapers and other media are disappearing, including The Jersey Journal, which closed its doors this month, Solomon wants to help fund local reporting to shine a spotlight on local government.

“Solomon has some great ideas, but I don't know if he's gonna be able to find the resources to implement them, or the political will,” said Dincer. Indeed, Solomon told The New Jersey Democrat that pushback has been significant from entrenched interests.

“While some colleagues and community members have supported our efforts, the resistance remains significant at both the local and state levels. The strongest opposition comes from those who benefit under the current system – developers, political insiders, and machine-backed candidates who’ve poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into preserving the status quo,” he said. But he has been buoyed by the grassroots support his campaign has received.