In a lawsuit filed Thursday morning, former Senate President Steve Sweeney is asking a judge to return him to New Jersey’s legislative redistricting panel., saying that Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr. didn’t have the authority to remove him.
Attorney William Tambussi, says that Jones violated the State Constitution by ejecting Sweeney and that acting Secretary of State Tahesha Way unlawfully certified the appointment of a new member, Laura Matos.
Court papers also say that the replacement of Sweeney didn’t consider South Jersey representation on the panel and that the legal deadline to appoint members has passed.
This sets up a court fight between two top-flight election law attorneys: Tambussi, who knows New Jersey as well as anyone, and Marc Elias and Jonathan Berkon, nationally-renowned election lawyers who have been retained by Jones.
Sweeney also alleges that a party loyalty agreement he and other commissioners signed prior to their appointment “constitutes a binding and enforceable contract between Sweeney and Jones.”
In his filing, Tambussi said that Sweeney “has complied with the terms of the Agreement at all applicable times.”
“Sweeney fulfilled all duties and obligations as a member of the Commission from the time of his appointment to the Commission until his removal without cause or authority by Jones,” Tambussi said in his petition to the court.
President Joe Biden has appointed Bob Andrzejczak (D-Middle), a former Democratic state senator who said during his 2019 campaign that he had not ruled out supporting Donald Trump’s re-election, as the state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency.
A one-time ally of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the right-of-center Andrzejczak told the New Jersey Globe in October 2019 that he might vote for Trump the following year. That was two months before Van Drew switched parties.
“Look, I vote for the best person regardless of party,” Andrzejczak said at the time. “Our nation was founded on Democracy and it’s about who has the best ideas, who’s willing to work with one another, who’s willing to serve and represent all the people, not just one side or another.”
One week before Election Day, Andrzejczak also refused to say if he would if he would support Biden or New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker if either won the Democratic presidential nomination.
“There’s a lot that has to be hashed out. I’m not throwing my support one nominee, at this point, over another,” Andrzejczak said about Biden. “There’s a lot more debates we have to go through. There’s still a long process before we get to that point.”
The new Biden appointee did rule out supporting two Democrats who were seeking the presidency at the time: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Oh god no,” said Andrzejczak. “No, I would not vote for them.”
Andrzejczak was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost his left leg in Iraq when Van Drew then a Democratic state senator, recruited him to run for the New Jersey State Assembly in 2013.
After Van Drew took his seat in Congress in January 2019, Andrzejczak won a special election to replace him in the State Senate. He lost a special election that November to Republican Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland) by a 53%-36% margin.
The former Democratic senator, who ran three times as a member of “The Van Drew Team,” had distanced himself from the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, prior to his 2019 campaign.
A one-time ally of Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), the right-of-center Andrzejczak told the New Jersey Globe in October 2019 that he might vote for Trump the following year. That was two months before Van Drew switched parties.
“Look, I vote for the best person regardless of party,” Andrzejczak said at the time. “Our nation was founded on Democracy and it’s about who has the best ideas, who’s willing to work with one another, who’s willing to serve and represent all the people, not just one side or another.”
One week before Election Day, Andrzejczak also refused to say ifhe would if he would support Biden or New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker if either won the Democratic presidential nomination.
“There’s a lot that has to be hashed out. I’m not throwing my support one nominee, at this point, over another,” Andrzejczak said about Biden. “There’s a lot more debates we have to go through. There’s still a long process before we get to that point.”
The new Biden appointee did rule out supporting two Democrats who were seeking the presidency at the time: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“Oh god no,” said Andrzejczak. “No, I would not vote for them.”
Andrzejczak was a decorated U.S. Army veteran who lost his left leg in Iraq when Van Drew, then a Democratic state senator, recruited him to run for the New Jersey State Assembly in 2013.
After Van Drew took his seat in Congress in January 2019, Andrzejczak won a special election to replace him in the State Senate. He lost a special election that November to Republican Michael Testa, Jr. (R-Vineland) by a 53%-36% margin.
The former Democratic senator, who ran three times as a member of “The Van Drew Team,” had distanced himself from the state’s Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, prior to his 2019 campaign.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics.It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
Check out yesterday’s and today’s issues below and discover why the most successful environmental law firms, consultants, trade associations, businesses, lawmakers, and regulators in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware find EnviroPolitics to be a source of indispensable daily information.
If you like our environmental, energy, and political news and our weekly legislation-tracking (and we bet you will), take us up on a terrific offer–a full month’s subscription for free. That’s 30 individual issues.
No obligation. No automatic extension. No gimmicks. No kidding.
The Lehigh County Authority suspended a permit last year allowing a New Jersey plastics manufacturer to dispose of industrial waste in one of its treatment plants after a two-state investigation identified the plant as the source of a likely cancer-causing chemical that turned up in New Jersey drinking water.
New Jersey American Water Co. detected an industrial solvent called 1,4-Dioxane in samples of Delaware River water near its plant that produces water for four South Jersey counties in February 2020. Working with the New Jersey and Pennsylvania departments of environmental protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission, it determined the chemical was entering the Delaware River from the Lehigh River, a company official said.
Testing of waste being hauled to LCA’s industrial pretreatment works in Upper Macungie Township identified 1,4-Dioxane in a tanker load from West Deptford, New Jersey, plastics company Coim USA as a major contributor, according to a letter LCA sent to the company in June when it suspended the permit. Coim was required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to send waste containing 1,4-Dioxane to an incinerator in New York, according to Politico.com, which first reported on the hunt for the source of the chemical Sunday.
The Lehigh County Authority wastewater pretreatment facility is seen Monday in Upper Macungie Township. Industrial waste treated at the plant was discovered to be the source of a cancer-causing chemical found in drinking water taken from the Delaware River in New Jersey. LCA has since ended its contract with the New Jersey company where the industrial waste originated. (Rick Kintzel/Morning Call)
CEO Liesel Gross said although the permit suspension was temporary, LCA has no intention of reinstating the permit.
“Our understanding was that it was an isolated incident but I have no way of being able to verify that,” Gross said.
Coim USA’s president did not return a phone call Monday but told Politico that the shipment of waste containing 1,4-Dioxane was mistakenly sent to LCA as the result of a one-time error. Coim USA is the American subsidiary of an Italian plastics and polymer manufacturer and first received a permit to dispose of waste at the LCA plant in 2018, Gross said. Regulators have not taken formal action in response to the release.
Sean Caddle (left), Michael Galdieri (the victim) Photo Credit: YouTube (Caddle) / Riotto Funeral Home (Galdieri)
By Jerry DeMarco Ocean Daily Voice
A New Jersey-based political consultant admitted Tuesday that he hired two hitmen to whack a longtime associate from Hudson County who had worked for him on various election campaigns, federal authorities said.
Sean Caddle, 44, a former aide to former State Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) paid the pair — one from Connecticut, the other from Pennsylvania — to kill Michael Galdieri, the son of former State Sen. James Galdieri (D-Jersey City) and a prominent figure in local Hudson County politics.
Galdieri, 52, was stabbed to death in May 2014 before his Jersey City apartment was set on fire, authorities said.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger didn’t identify Galdieri by name in announcing Caddle’s guilty plea.
He also didn’t name the killers — although court papers identify them as co-conspirators, indicating possible cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“This was a callous and violent crime, and this defendant is as responsible as the two men who wielded the knife,” Sellinger said. “There is no more serious crime than the taking of another person’s life. The defendant has admitted arranging and paying for murder by two other people. His admission of guilt means he will now pay for his crime.”
Caddle paid the Connecticut killer thousands of dollars “to commit a murder on [his] behalf…then recruited a longtime accomplice from Philadelphia to join the plot” in April 2014, the U.S. attorney said.
The following month, the men stabbed the victim to death and then set fire to his Jersey City apartment, Sellinger said.
