Carla Katz

After a protracted legal battle, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Paul Innes today ordered Gov. Jon Corzine to release about 740 pages of email correspondences between him and union leader/ex-girlfriend Karla Katz.

But don’t expect to see the emails any time soon. Attorney General Anne Milgram, who respresents Corzine in the matter, has vowed to appeal the decision with the state Supreme Court and will seek a stay on the release of the documents.

Judge Innes ruled that only 45 pages were not subject to disclosure.

Today’s decision is the outcome of a lawsuit that has started just one day short of a year ago. On May 31, 2007, Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson filed suit to force the Corzine Administration to release the emails, which they suspected contained discussions about a contract negotiation between the state and Katz’s union, Communications Workers of America Local 1034.

Union Leader Carla Katz has filed a lawsuit against several branches of her own union today, charging top officials with waging personal attacks and investigations against her in retaliation for her opposition to some concessions they supported.

The Katz complaint was filed against Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen, District Vice President Chris Shelton, Legislative and Political Director Robert Master, as well as the leaders of five local CWA unions that supported last year’s agreement with the state.

Katz heads up CWA Local 1034, which, according to her press release, is the largest CWA local in the country.  She filed the complaint this morning at the United States District Court in Trenton. 

While the largest branch of the Communications Workers of America backed Rob Andrews for Senate last week, two of the union’s smaller locals stuck with incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

On Friday, CWA Locals 1039 and 1032 endorsed the incumbent Senator.  Combined, the two have about 12,000 members.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee John Adler today accusing him of caving into political pressure and watering down a call for an investigation into Gov. Corzine's relationship with Rocco Riccio, the brother-in-law of his ex-girlfriend/paramour/companion Carla Katz.

But Senate Democrats say that Wilson's letter is based on a misconstrued premise.

On Monday, news outlets originally reported that Adler called on the Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate the $15,000 gift Corzine made to Riccio after he was forced out of Turnpike Authority job by the Corzine administration. This took place at the confirmation hearing of comptroller nominee Matthew Boxer, who was present at a meeting with Riccio. But Adler's letter to the Attorney General sent later that day only asked for an investigation into whether Riccio illegally looked into tax records, and news acocunts amended accordingly.

PolitickerNJ.com is pleased to welcome our two newest columnists: Michael Patrick Carroll and Carla Katz. Carroll, a Morris County Republican, was re-elected to his seventh term in the State Assembly last week. Katz is the President of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034; with over 16,000 members, Local 1034 is the largest CWA Local in the nation.

Republican State Chairman Tom Wilson's statement on Superior Court Judge Paul Innes' ruling:

“Today’s decision from Judge Innes is a victory for open government and a defeat for Jon Corzine, New Jersey’s Secret-Keeper-In-Chief.  Governor Corzine’s attorney’s agreed today that they’ve not complied with Judge Innes’ order and now must enter into a consent order forcing them to do a thorough search for communications between the administration and Carla Katz and provide specific details about that search proving the search was comprehensive.  If, as the Governor claimed today after the decision, he was thorough in his search, why didn’t he just give the court the detail he was ordered to provide months ago? Governor Corzine isn’t just stonewalling me, now he’s stonewalling the court.  The fact is he didn’t do a thorough search and he doesn’t want people to see the backchannel communications with Katz and the influence she has over his public actions.

In the wake of a Quinnipiac University poll in which a majority of voters say Gov. Jon Corzine should make public his financial dealings with Rocco Riccio, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance again called on Attorney General Anne Milgram to investigate Riccio’s role in a government job.

The brother-in-law of state workers union leader and former Gov. Jon Corzine girlfriend, Carla Katz, Riccio apparently quit his government post after Corzine’s people told him he should leave instead of turning into a political flash point. Corzine later admitted to giving Riccio money, a move the governor’s detractors say occurred after Corzine’s people couldn’t get Riccio the private sector job they said they’d secure for him.

New Jersey voters polled by Quinnipiac University said Gov. Jon Corzine’s financial ties to Carla Katz’s brother-in-law, Rocco Riccio, should be a matter of public record and necessitate an independent investigation.

The results released today show that 55% of those in both parties polled believe the matter should be made public and should be independently examined, compared to 39% who say they believe it is a private matter.

By a five-to-four margin (49%-38%), likely voters say New Jersey is on the wrong track, but that’s not their opinion of Governor Jon Corzine.

According to the latest survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, 54% of voters say they approve of the job Corzine is doing as governor while 25% disapprove, a 2:1 ratio in his favor that has been fairly steady throughout his two years as governor.