Bob Singer

Although three Ocean County state Senators had already thrown their support behind state Sen. Joe Pennacchio prior to Anne Evans Estabrook’s departure from the U.S. Senate race, the county’s Republican chairman, George Gilmore, has not yet committed to a candidate.

“We’re going to wait for the smoke to clear, see who the potential viable candidates are, then have our screening process,” said Gilmore.

The county committee will hold its nominating convention on March 27th. 

Usually the Governor announces his own appointments, but this week Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas Kelaher said that his successor will be Marlene Lynch Ford, a former Democratic Assemblywoman from Ocean County.

Ford was first elected to the Legislature in 1983, defeating one-term Republican Warren Wolf (who had won an open Assembly seat in 1981 when Hazel Gluck unsuccessfully sought to move up to the Senate in a race against John Russo). At age 29, she is among the youngest women to ever win election to the New Jersey State Assembly.

Richard Perr and Elia Pelios filed ethics complaints today against seven state legislators.

The two Democratic County Chairmen alleged State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt may have profited by state budget items that supported. Democrats are alleging that a federal probe of how legislators might personally profit off specific state budget items is unfairly targeting just one party by looking only at actions since 2004, when Democrats first had complete control of both houses of the Legislature.

"These complaints are nothing more than a pathetic attempt by the Democrat machine to divert attention away from the fact that a laundry list of Democrats is being investigated by the FBI and US Attorney for using their office to enrich themselves. By their own admission, their complaints lack any merit or substance," said GOP State Chairman Tom Wilson. "Their failure to provide a shred of evidence to support their claims demonstrates that this is nothing more than a couple of political bosses looking to sully the good names of honest legislators to help their campaigns. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, though, since Chairman Perr has a history of filing bogus complaints. The ethics committee will undoubtedly see this as yet another baseless, politically inspired stunt and dismiss it just as they have his past complaints."

Seven Republican legislators will be the targets of ethics complaints to be filed tomorrow by two Democratic party leaders: State Senators Joseph Kyrillos, Bob Singer and Peter Inverso, and Assemblymen Kevin O'Toole, David Wolfe, Christopher Connors and Rick Merkt.

O'Toole, is running for State Senate in a contested GOP primary against former Bergen County Freeholder Todd Caliguire and Wayne attorney Victor Rabbat. Inverso is retiring, but comes from the politically competitive 14th district. Connors, in a safe GOP district, is running for the State Senate seat his father has held since 1981.

Seven Republican legislators will be the targets of ethics complaints to be filed tomorrow by two Democratic party leaders.  Three of them are State Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Bob Singer, and Assemblyman David Wolfe.  Democrats are alleging that a federal probe of how legislators might personally profit off specific state budget items is unfairly targeting just one party by looking only at actions since 2004, when Democrats first had complete control of both houses of the Legislature.

The Record's story this morning on the federal probe of legislators who received some personal benefit from state budget items suggests that only Democrats are being targeted.  According to The Record, there are some similarities between State Senator Joseph Coniglio and Assemblyman Brian Stack, both Democrats who have received subpoenas, and two Republican legislators who have not: State Senator Robert Singer and Assemblyman David Wolfe.

Four different members of the New Jersey Legislature wrote PoliticsNJ.com with basically the same question: "Did Bob Martin call Bob Singer for a ride home?" Martin was arrested for drunk driving in Manchester Township, which is in Singer's Ocean County legislative district.

PRESS RELEASE

New Jersey Right to Life
113 North Avenue West
Cranford, NJ 07016

Contact: Marie Tasy
(732) 846-2000

SENATOR ROBERT SINGER SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF FROM SENATE VOTE ON 2913, STEM CELL RESEARCH BOND ACT OF 2006

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS CITED

December 15, 2005--

The NJ Senate is scheduled to take up S2913, the Stem Cell Research Bond Act of 2006 today. Citing potential conflicts of interest, New Jersey Right to Life urges Senator Bob Singer (R-30) to recuse himself from voting on S2913. In addition to serving on the NJ Commission on Science and Technology which is the body designated under S2913 to allocate research money, Senator Singer is Vice President of Corporate Relations for Community/Kimball Medical Center, an affiliate of the St. Barnabas Health Care System in Livingston, NJ. St. Barnabas Hospital is located in Acting Governor Codey’s legislative district.

St. Barnabas Hospital is already performing medical research involving the genetic altering of human embryos and will be eligible to receive grants under S2913. In 2001, St. Barnabas Hospital published a study documenting the performance of the controversial and potentially dangerous ooplasmic transfer procedure. Ooplasmic transfer is a process where mitochondrial genes from the egg of one donor will be transferred to the egg of another and then implanted in the womb. This creates children with genes from three parents. Children born from this procedure developed a high incidence of Turner syndrome. Following the St. Barnabas announcement, the FDA notified all US fertility clinics known to be offering the procedure that further ooplasm transfer protocols could not proceed without FDA approval.

As a member of the Commission on Science and Technology, Senator Singer will be in a unique position to steer grant money to St. Barnabas Hospital and/or its affiliate, Kimball Medical Center, where he holds a high level management position. It would be a breach of professional and governmental ethics for Senator Singer to vote on this bill. He should recuse himself.
####

It has now been a full hour and there is still no sign of where Leonard Lance is. PoliticsNJ.com has now tripled the bounty: e-mail us Lance's whereabouts and we'll send you $3.

Editor's Note: An e-mail from one reader says "I don't know where Lance is, but I hope Bob Singer isn't driving people to the polls."