Nix GOP calls to donate money
By: Joseph Harvie
The South Brunswick Democratic Organization does not plan on returning or donating any of the cash it received from a political action committee operated by former state Sen. John Lynch, who recently pleaded guilty to bribery and tax-evasion charges.
The township Democratic committee received $1,500 in contributions from the former senator’s political action committee, New Directions Through Responsible Leadership, in 2003 and 2004.
Local Republicans are calling for the money to be returned, saying it is tainted because of the Sen. Lynch’s guilty plea.
The calls come shortly after Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, a Democrat whose district includes South Brunswick, donated $2,000 the same amount she received from New Directions in 2003 and 2004 to N.J. Citizen Action in what she called a symbolic gesture designed to encourage campaign finance reform.
Bernard Hvozdovic, chairman of the South Brunswick Democratic Organization, said the local party has already donated more than $15,000 to local charities since it received the New Directions money.
"We donate to local organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the band parents, the Lions, the YMCA," Mr. Hvozdovic said. "The only way we can give that money is to take it back and give it to another charity. We are going to continue to support local charities and organizations. It’s our duty and our obligation."
Mr. Lynch, 67, pleaded guilty to official misconduct and tax evasion on Sept. 15 in federal court in Newark. He admitted to accepting more than $22,000 from a South Brunswick sand company in 1998 and 1999. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated tax-evasion charge for failing to declare $150,000 in income on a land sale in 1999.
Sen. Lynch created New Directions in 2001 and distributed several hundred thousand dollars to state, county and local candidates and political organizations. Most of the recipients were Democrats, according to the political Web site, PoliticsNJ.
South Brunswick Democrats were among the recipients, according to state Election Law Enforcement Commission documents. The township Democrats received $1,500 from New Directions between 2003 and 2004. Another $7,200 contribution was received but then voided in 2004, according to the documents.
In addition, the Middlesex County Democratic Organization received $178,900 from Mr. Lynch’s political action committee over the last five years; the county Democrats contributed $151,299 to South Brunswick Democrats during the same time period.
The Monroe Township Democratic Organization also accepted $9,000 from Mr. Lynch’s PAC between 2003 and 2004, according to documents.
Ms. Greenstein decided to donate the money she received from New Directions within two weeks of the Lynch guilty plea, she said. She said that it wasn’t improper to accept the money at the time, but that it was a good opportunity to make a statement "to make things better, to be a symbol and to be a role model."
Ms. Greenstein said she chose Citizen Action because of its work on public financing. Ms. Greenstein sponsored the legislation that created the state’s "clean-elections" or public-financing pilot program. She is working on an Assembly committee to write the legislation for the 2007 pilot.
"I thought it seemed to be the perfect place to donate the money," she said Tuesday. "It is something I’m active in and it is one of the places that are trying to make government better. If one wanted to make a symbolic statement, this was the perfect place."
N.J. Citizen Action is hoping others take Ms. Greenstein’s lead.
"They definitely should look at what Assemblywoman Greenstein did," said Marilyn Carpinteyro, the group’s lead organizer on campaign-finance issues.
She said the money would help Citizen Action with "continuing our education on clean elections."
"But they can put it into any other group or organization to remove that taint," she said.
Roger Craig, chairman of the South Brunswick Republican Organization, agreed. He said township Democrats should donate the cash to a charity, because the money is "dirty" especially because Mr. Lynch pleaded guilty to a crime he committed in South Brunswick.
"The money needs to go to some good purpose and should not be spent" on campaigning, Mr. Craig said.
Mayor Frank Gambatese, a Democrat running for re-election, said Republicans should follow their own advice. He said Republicans at all levels of government should return or donate the money they received from Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist who pleaded guilty bribing prominent Republican officials to win approval for American Indian casinos.
"I have a problem with this because it goes both ways," he said.
At the same time, he could support donating the money.
"If it makes it so people have more confidence in government, we can return it or can give it to some charity, I have no problem with that," Mayor Gambatese said. "Politics today have made people so cynical."
Both Monroe Township Mayor Richard Pucci, who is chairman of the Monroe Township Democratic Organization, and Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joseph Spicuzzo defended their decision to keep the money.
New Directions was founded on the principles of "building the Democratic Party and recruiting the next generation of elected officials," Mayor Pucci said.
While Sen. Lynch was the PAC’s founder, "his personal problems that he pleaded to have nothing to do whatsoever with Democratic Party or the contributors," Mayor Pucci said.
Sheriff Spicuzzo said in a press release issued Wednesday that there is nothing wrong with the money New Directions donated to the county Democrats.
"As an active political organization, the Middlesex County Democrats will continue to seek public support for our candidates and our programs," he said. "And we will continue to seek the financial resources necessary to help deliver the Democratic Party message. We will continue to do so honorably and in full compliance with campaign finance laws and regulations."
Staff Writer Stephanie Brown and Managing Editor Hank Kalet contributed to this story.

