Christie praises Stack in Union City campaign stop

By Max Pizarro, www.PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

"Take my cellphone number" - Stack, right, and Christie meet on the street on National Night Out.

UNION CITY - Chris Christie appeared to vouch for Brian Stack's integrity during a visit to Union City tonight amid speculation that the popular mayor and state Senator could endorse the GOP candidate for governor instead of his party's standard bearer, Gov. Jon Corzine.

For Stack, praise from the former United States Attorney is a big deal in the middle of a corruption scandal that has weakened Democratic machines in Hoboken, Jersey City, Secaucus, and Bayonne. Sources say Stack is the "Union City official" in a criminal complaint filed nearly two weeks ago against Shimon Haber as part of a federal corruption sting resulting in the arrests of 29 elected officials and/or political operatives.

"I don't know anything about that," Christie said, referring to the Haber complaint. "As far as I know, he's (Stack's) done nothing wrong. You see the reception that people give him here on the streets. He's an elected official who works very hard for the people here, and it shows."

Stack, clearly pleased, walked Christie around a crowd of local residents in a city that Corzine won with 79% of the vote four years ago.

"Do you think he would have come here and be seen with me if I had done something wrong?" Stack asked.

When Christie addressed the residents, he made sure to call Stack his "friend."

Later in the evening, Stack also escorted Corzine around the National Night Out event.

While serving as the federal prosecutor, Christie dropped a subpoena on Stack, probing the legislator's alleged steering of funds to the nonprofit organization where Stack's the-wife worked.

Christie is making an active bid for votes in urban areas of the state that traditionally support Democrats with huge pluralities.

"I told you at the start of this campaign that we would come to the cities and I would present my plan for our cities to the people who live here, and that's what I did here today," said Christie. "I wouldn't expect the mayor's endorsement. He is a Democrat. He invited us here and we accepted his invitation."

Max Pizarro is a PolitickerNJ.com Reporter and can be reached via email at max@politicsnj.com.

I lived in Union City for a short while, and for a tightly-packed low-rent town it always seemed to just "work" somehow. never trash-ridden. street lights and stop signs where you'd expect them. new - safe - light rail station, a gorgeous new indoor municipal pool. about as multi-culti a place as I've seen, and everyone generally getting along. Mayor Stack was (and hopefully still is) an example of what a Hudson County leader can actually accomplish.

Union City has come so far in a short time this is pretty sad if true. Either way Stack has proved that rampant poverty doesn't have to include filthy and crime ridden streets.

Stack; the best thing to happen in Union City since Bill Musto and now there's a possible link to ill gotten funds. Hudson County must be losing their "touch".

The plot thickens.

Tracking $4,000 check
Saturday, August 1, 2009
BY JOHN REITMEYER, HERB JACKSON AND ELISE YOUNG
The Record STAFF WRITERS

A political fund linked to Union City Mayor Brian Stack received a $4,000 donation in the middle of August 2007 ? the same time that the U.S. Attorney?s Office says a ?middleman? for an unnamed ?Union City official? received a $4,000 check from the government informant at the center of a far-reaching federal corruption sting.

A donation of $4,000 from BH Property Management ? identified in a federal complaint as ?an FBI undercover company? that was used to facilitate money laundering ? shows up on a 2007 campaign finance report for Union City First, a political action committee linked to Stack, who is also a state senator.

And a payment of $4,000 by a property management company shows up in the government?s complaint against Shimon Haber, one of the 44 people charged in the sting. The complaint says the check was intended to pave the way for help with a development project.

Stack, who has not been implicated or charged in the sting, could not be reached for comment through his legislative office on Friday.

A message left with Stack?s attorney, Dennis McAlevy, was not returned.

Frederick Tomkins, who is listed as the treasurer of Union City First, also could not be reached for comment.

When asked the identity of the Union City official named in the Haber complaint, spokesman Michael Drewniak of the U.S. Attorney?s Office said, ?I couldn?t comment on that.?

The federal investigation is ongoing, prosecutors have said.

In the complaint, Solomon Dwek, the government?s cooperating witness, discussed using a property management company in the summer of 2007 to funnel a $4,000 check to someone described as a ?middleman? for a ?Union City official? in exchange for help with the development project.

?I can get you a check. ? I have a management company that doesn?t show up anywhere,? Dwek is quoted in the complaint as telling Michael Altman, another man who was charged in the case.

The complaint goes on to say that on or about Aug. 16, 2007, a representative of the Union City official ?accepted the $4,000 check payable to the political committee, placing it in his pocket.?

A footnote in the complaint explains that ?the $4,000 check made payable to the political committee was drawn on the account of a company that ? in reality, was an FBI front company.? The complaint did not identify the Union City official, the middleman or the political committee, beyond calling it a Union City official?s political fund.

Records for Union City First maintained by the state Election Law Enforcement Committee indicate the fund accepted a $4,000 check from BH Property Management that was dated Aug. 15, 2007.

Stack, 43, an English teacher in Jersey City public schools, first gained elective office in 1997, serving for a year as a Union City commissioner. In 1998 he won a six-year term on the Hudson County Board of Freeholders; two years later, he was appointed mayor of Union City, replacing Rudy Garcia, who resigned amid a recall effort and an inquiry by the anti-corruption unit of the state Attorney General?s Office.

In 2004, when he won the race for an Assembly seat, he gave up the freeholder job but continued as mayor ? and he kept that post when he was elected to the Senate in 2008.

His multiple public jobs have made him a perennial example for critics of double dipping and pension padding. In September, Governor Corzine signed legislation to ban lawmakers from holding more than one public office, but a grandfather clause allowed Stack ? and 18 others in the Assembly and Senate ? to keep all their government jobs.

Last year, Stack was paid a total $117,878 as an employee of Union City, Jersey City and the Senate, state records show. He is enrolled in two public pension systems.

E-mail: reitmeyer@northjersey.com,jackson@northjersey.com and younge@northjersey.com

A political fund linked to Union City Mayor Brian Stack received a $4,000 donation in the middle of August 2007 ? the same time that the U.S. Attorney?s Office says a ?middleman? for an unnamed ?Union City official? received a $4,000 check from the government informant at the center of a far-reaching federal corruption sting.

A donation of $4,000 from BH Property Management ? identified in a federal complaint as ?an FBI undercover company? that was used to facilitate money laundering ? shows up on a 2007 campaign finance report for Union City First, a political action committee linked to Stack, who is also a state senator.

And a payment of $4,000 by a property management company shows up in the government?s complaint against Shimon Haber, one of the 44 people charged in the sting. The complaint says the check was intended to pave the way for help with a development project.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/polit ... s/Tracking_4000_fund.html