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TagsProminent Hudson County politician has not been charged
BY ANGELA DAIDONE
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria has resigned from his post, Gov. Jon Corzine announced today, according to the Associated Press and other published reports.
Early this morning, federal officials raided Doria's Bayonne home and Trenton office amid a federal probe, which netted at least 44 people in a widespread corruption and money-laundering investigation.
Doria, a former state senator, assemblyman and mayor of Bayonne, has not been charged in the investigation, according to a statement by acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra.
As Commissioner, Doria oversees the Divisions of Local Government Services, Codes & Standards, Community Resources, Housing and Fire Safety, as well as the Division on Women, the Office of Smart Growth and the Center for Hispanic Policy, Research & Development. He also chairs the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority, the New Jersey Housing & Mortgage Finance Agency and the Council on Affordable Housing.Doria served as Mayor of Bayonne for nine years and represented Hudson County in the State Senate. Before becoming a Senator in 2004, he served 12 consecutive terms in the New Jersey General Assembly, including 10 years as Minority Leader and two years as Assembly Speaker.
Before embarking on a political career, Doria was a social studies teacher at Holy Family Academy in Bayonne. He joined St. Peter's College in Jersey City as an administrator and adjunct faculty-member. He served on the Bayonne Board of Education for four years, three of them as board president, and served as Hudson County Board of Education President from 1978 to 1979. He has taught college-level courses at St. Peter's College and Rutgers University.
Corzine said in a statement today that he did not believe any other members of his administration were involved in the federal probe.
Other key politicians charged today include Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, as well as rabbis from the Syrian Jewish communities of Deal and Brooklyn who were arrested and charged with laundering millions of dollars through religious non-profit organizations.
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Four years later and he didn't do anything.
Maybe he's still tied up with the Carla Katz scandal ...
In May 2008, a judge ruled that Corzine must release e-mails he had exchanged with Katz, but as of July 2008 Corzine had yet to comply and had spent more than $54,000 in taxpayer money resisting.
Remember the NJ shutdown ...
Corzine, in attempting to pass the 2007 fiscal year budget, clashed with fellow state Democrats in the New Jersey General Assembly, particularly over the proposed increase of the state's sales tax from 6% to 7%.
Oh, he's also one of those Goldman Sachs people that like to spend taxpayers money. Think: bailouts, TARP, AIG, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin (Geithner's mentor), Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson.
Read for yourself about Jon Cozine here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Corzine