N.Y. & N.J., corrupt cousins: Empire State and Jersey are joined at the hip in the worst way

New York Daily News
Sunday, August 2nd 2009, 4:00 AM

New Yorkers inclined to roll their eyes and explain away the latest explosion of political corruption across the Hudson as a uniquely Jersey phenomenon should think again.

The sickness circulating in the body politic knows no limits of geography, party affiliation, race, age or religion. Everywhere you look, it seems, pols are on the take.

New Jersey is in the spotlight these days: the 44 men and women recently arrested by the FBI on various corruption and money laundering charges represent a stunning haul.

The mayors of Ridgefield, Hoboken and Secaucus were part of the perp walk, along with two assemblymen, the president of the Jersey City Council and a raft of inspectors, commissioners, lesser officials and rabbis.

Thirty-two-year-old Peter Cammarano, the youngest mayor in the history of Hoboken, quit last week the day before what would have marked a month in office.

Cammarano was arrested for allegedly taking $25,000 in cash bribes in exchange for a promise of secret help to a federal informant he believed was a real estate developer.

The young ex-mayor, who denies any wrongdoing, ran for office as a reformer promising honesty and transparency in government.

A spate of articles about the New Jersey busts lament an entrenched culture of corruption in what one recent book has dubbed "The Soprano State."

But change the names and home addresses, and many of the Garden State defendants could have been New Yorkers.

We are fresh from seeing 39-year-old City Councilman Miguel Martinez admit to stealing $106,000 from the public, starting no later than six months after first taking office in 2002.

His campaign Web site is still online, showing Martinez striding around his district, giving fiery speeches in support of low-income housing, counseling for domestic violence survivors, and other good causes.

Space constraints do not allow me to recite the depressing list of schemes and prison sentences of the more than 20 elected officials in New York state and city government who have been charged with crimes since 2003.

The cavalcade of convictions includes ex-Controller Alan Hevesi; the ex-Democratic leader and assemblyman from Brooklyn, Clarence Norman; the ex-GOP boss and senator from the Bronx, Sen. Guy Velella; Assembly members Brian McLaughlin, Diane Gordon and Tony Seminerio; and ex-Councilmen Angel Rodriguez and Dennis Gallagher.

They are Democrats and Republicans, a veritable United Nations of black, Latino, Jewish, Irish and Italian crooks.

The rot runs so deep, our challenge is to resist the temptation to write off every single elected official as irredeemably selfish, tainted and dishonest.

That sort of cynicism may be understandable, but it's too easy - and dangerous. Dismissing all pols as hopeless would drive out the honest servants, allowing the worst crooks to run amok.

Remember, corruption isn't just a matter of public money that goes missing; it can cost lives.

James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for the Cranes and Derricks Unit at the Department of Buildings, was arrested last year for allegedly signing off on 20 to 30 crane operation licenses without actually inspecting the machines, and for selling a crane operation test and answers for $3,000.

Another official was charged with issuing more than 200 crane operation licenses to people who failed the test.

In a city where two crane collapses killed a total of nine people last year, averting our eyes from corruption is a luxury we simply cannot afford.

This election year - and every year - the No. 1 quality we need in elected officials is honesty.

elouis@nydailynews.com