Asshat is not resigning....

JJ Link...

Must have got permission from Corzine.

Is Smith quitting as assemblyman, or not?

Wednesday, August 05, 2009
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Arrested two weeks ago on corruption charges, Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, who represents Bayonne and much of Jersey City, will make a decision about whether he's going to resign his office by the end of the week, his attorney said last night.

Peter Willis, Smith's Jersey City-based attorney, said he met with Smith yesterday afternoon to discuss the assemblyman's legal options in light of Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts suspending his pay and benefits and the federal charges he confronts.

"We should reach a decision (about Smith's resignation) by week's end," Willis said.

Smith was arrested as part of a massive corruption sweep on July 23 and charged with accepting $15,000 in bribes from a government informant posing as a developer seeking favors.

Nearly two dozen Hudson County officials - including former mayors Peter Cammarano of Hoboken and Dennis Elwell of Secaucus - were nabbed in the sweep. Both former mayors have proclaimed their innocence and resigned.

Pressure has been building for Smith, whose term ends in December, to withdraw from his post.

Roberts had already stopped his benefits and pay. On Saturday, two Republican Assembly members - Dawn Marie Addiego and Scott Rudder - called for Smith's expulsion from the Legislature, along with Assemblymen Daniel Van Pelt and Joe Vas, who also face corruption charges.

Van Pelt was also arrested on July 23 as part of the federal probe into money laundering and political corruption and has resigned.

In a letter to Addiego and Rudder, Roberts explained that he's not going to expel Smith and Vas, both Democrats, because the process, which would involve witnesses, testimony, and examination of evidence, could interfere with the ongoing federal probe that led to Smith's arrest.

"I agree that we must send a strong message to the public that corruption will not be tolerated. But, I believe that the actions we take can never jeopardize the ongoing work of law enforcement as they continue to interview witnesses, collect evidence and develop their criminal case against these individuals," Roberts wrote.

"I would once again renew my call for Assemblymen Smith and Vas to do the right thing for their constituents and for the good of the Legislature and resign because I believe that they cannot effectively serve the people they were elected to represent given the charges levied against them," Roberts said.

Vega: last man standing.

Quote:

That's the kind of pressure that sucks all the joy out of a job.

Another one that is "not guilty" but resigning - yeah, right.

From the Jersey Journal:

Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith of Jersey City, arrested on corruption charges last month, has agreed to resign his office, according to sources close to Smith.

Smith was arrested on July 23, along with nearly two dozen other Hudson County officials, as part of a massive corruption bust.

Smith is charged with accepting $15,000 in bribes from a government informant posing as a developer seeking help with obtaining the okay from the state Department of Environmental Protection to build a project on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City.

Former mayors Peter Cammarano of Hoboken and Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, who were also arrested July 23, have already resigned their positions.

Pressure was mounting on Smith to depart. Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts had suspended his state pay and benefits. And two Republican Assembly members had called for his expulsion. But Roberts declined to pursue that because the process, he said, would interfere with the ongoing federal probe.

Smith and his attorney, Peter Willis of Jersey City, couldn't be immediately reached to comment.