newjerseynewsroom.com

BY IRWIN S. STOOLMACHER

COMMENTARY

You can’t always believe what you read in the headlines. Back in 1972, Joe Doria replaced me as Urban Coordinator at Saint Peter’s College. Joe came to the college from Holy Family Academy in Bayonne, where he was a social studies teacher.

From 1980-2004 Joe served in the New Jersey General Assembly. He held many key leadership positions including serving as the Assembly Speaker from 1990-1991. From 1998-2007 he also served as the Mayor of Bayonne.

As a result of an intra-party battle, he was defeated for reelection and left the Assembly in January 2004. He returned six months later when he was appointed to replace a State Senator who died in office. He subsequently was elected to the remainder of the term in a special election. He served in the Senate until 2007 when Jon Corzine appointed him Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs.

I hadn’t seen Joe for many years when I ran into him in the waiting area at the Department of Community Affairs on March 5, 2009. I saw Joe’s husky profile from the back and called out to him. I said that he probably didn’t remember me, but before I could finish he interrupted me and said he had followed my career and asked why I was at the Department. I told him it related to the Rescue Mission of Trenton and introduced him to Mary Gay Abbott-Young, the Mission’s Executive Director. He responded that he knew about the Mission and expressed a willingness to be helpful with regard to the issue we had come to DCA to discuss. I then invite him to visit the Mission. He told me to call his office to schedule a visit.

On June 11 Joe came to the Mission without an entourage. He drove himself and spent two hours at the Mission. He talked to Mission residents about their pre-Mission experiences and the barriers they had experienced as they attempted to rebuild their lives.

On July 23, 2010 I was shocked to read the headline: “Former Bayonne Mayor Joe Doria resigns state post amid massive corruption probe.” Joe’s home and office were raided on the same day that 44 others were arrested and charged as part of an Operation Bid Rig roundup. Unlike the others, Doria was not arrested or charged with any crime.

The FBI agents who raided his home entered with empty file boxes and left with an empty boxes. The next day Governor Corzine asked for and received Joe’s resignation. Governor Corzine was in the midst of a re-election campaign against U.S Attorney Chris Christie and was facing an electorate in which the majority disapproved of the way he was handling corruption in the state.

I spent four years in Hudson County and have maintained contact with various individuals who have their fingers on the pulse of the county’s politics. I never heard anyone suggest that Joe Doria was involved with any sort of nefarious activities. Further, I am aware of the importance that family and religion play in Joe’s life and that his life style is by no means highfalutin

In a November 4, 2003 New York Times article, written by Terry Golway when Joe was about to leave the leave the Assembly, he was described in laudatory terms by both Republicans and Democrats as “a legislator’s legislator,” “the Sam Rayburn of New Jersey,” “the most policy-oriented legislator I’ve ever seen,” “a person of unquestionable decency and boundless compassion,” and “for Republicans, he was a political adversary without being a personal enemy.” Golway wrote, “Joseph V. Doria, the powerful legislator, never stopped being Joe Doria from Bayonne, a man with a cluttered desk, a straightforward manner and an aversion for slick self-promotion.” Former Governor Florio said this about Joe, “He is commendable model of commitment to substance and civility in public life.”

On Oct.7 I was elated to read a headline in The Times which read; “Former head of N.J. community affairs quietly cleared of wrongdoing after two-year investigation.” The story indicated that after a “sweeping corruption investigation, Joseph Doria … has quietly been cleared of any wrongdoing. In a rare letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, federal prosecutors said they have closed their investigation of the matter…. no charges will be brought by this office regarding the circumstances that led to the search.”