Libtard NJ Senator Jon Corzine faces ethics charges
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

A complaint against the Democrat says he gave a loan to his girlfriend, who ran a union which endorsed the Corzine campaign.

N.J. Democrat failed to disclose loan, ethics complaint says

Personal matter doesn't require it, Corzine says

Jon Corzine (left), Carla Katz (center), and Bill Michaelcheck (right) at the Pierre Hotel, Annual Paradise Ball 2002 >>>>>

WASHINGTON - An ethics complaint alleging that Sen. Jon Corzine failed to disclose a $470,000 mortgage loan made in 2002 to a powerful state union boss, who was his girlfriend at the time, was filed yesterday with the Senate Ethics Committee by a public-interest lawyer. Corzine, a New Jersey Democrat, forgave the loan in 2004, just days before he announced that he was running for governor of New Jersey. Corzine, who made millions when he was the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, later received the union's endorsement.

The last time that the committee took action against a senator after an investigation was in 2002, when Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat, was accused of violating ethics rules by accepting gifts without disclosing them.

The panel ultimately admonished Torricelli, and he dropped his re-election bid.

"Robert Torricelli was caught taking bribes and not disclosing them and Jon Corzine has been caught giving bribes and not disclosing them," said Carl Mayer, the public-interest lawyer in New Jersey who filed the complaint.

Corzine said yesterday that he will cooperate fully with the committee.

He sent a letter to Sens. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Tim Johnson, D-S.D., the panel's chairman and vice chairman, asking for "a fair and professional review of the matter as quickly as possible."

"The loan was of a personal nature, and there was no requirement for it to be listed on his annual Senate disclosure forms," Corzine's office said in a statement.

"The loan, which he subsequently forgave, was never an asset held for income or investment, but a loan to a personal friend," the statement said.

The loan was given to Carla Katz, the president of Communications Workers of America Local 1034, when the two were dating.

The union represents 9,000 New Jersey state employees.

Winston-Salem Journal ~ Associated Press ** N.J. Democrat failed to disclose loan, ethics complaint says