Corruption in the Garden State: Seven Years in the Trenches with New Jersey’s Political Elite

My first week as political staffer in New Jersey I was taught three things; 1) Always look the other way, 2) Be intrinsically loyal, and 3) Toughen up or go home.

June 23rd, when the scandal soon to be dubbed “Kidneygate” hit the stands, no one was surprised. Their faces may have said otherwise for about 30 seconds, but then it quickly became a topic of bemusement in the office. And we loved it.

Money laundering, trafficking of body parts, and bribes were the scandal du jour. Dramatic, yes. But nothing new for us.

Sketchy dealings are to New Jersey politics as fake tans and Jagerbombs are to guidos. The corruption stereotype is more than that. It is a way of life in the Garden State political arena. Even the upper echelon of the political elite shrug at corruption.

A week after Kidneygate broke, former democratic Governor Brendan Byrne noted in an interview with the Star Ledger, “How can I say I’m surprised? What I have been thinking is, why do people do this in the light of the fact that you do get caught. Maybe you don’t get caught often enough.”

Which is true. We are conditioned as staffers not to get too close to our bosses because if they go down, our fledgling careers meet them there.

Take the case of Jack Shaw — a once very highly regarded political consultant in Hudson County. Charged with accepting $10,000 in bribes from an FBI informant, Shaw was indicted along with 44 others. Five days later, he was found dead in his apartment of indeterminate causes.

Shaw worked with the best — from former Governor Jim Florio to the Trenton hyper-analytical types. Somewhere along the way he was tempted. And he went for it. It’s New Jersey. Are we really surprised?

Working as a staffer or a consultant, for everyone but the most idealistic, is completely thankless. You are told to do anything for your candidates at any cost. If you’re not willing to do that, you shouldn’t be in the game.

That occasionally means looking the other way when your boss accepts a contribution for a no-bid contract, or ignoring allegations of voter fraud mentioned in probes by State officials. Winning is the only gratification we get, and we make sure our candidates succeed.

At any cost.

I’m a Democrat. But corruption goes both ways. Republican now-Governor-Elect Chris Christie has more than his share of scandals — from violating ethics guidelines during his service as US Attorney General, to not paying his income taxes.

No one is immune to making decisions that benefit themselves and hurt their constituency.

When a scandal breaks, the spin machine goes into overdrive. If it’s your boss, you play the positive angle. Bring up as many possible accomplishments and start running media feed of them with their spouse, kissing children, cleaning up a park. Try to bury the story with press releases on groundbreaking obscenely positive pieces of legislation.

Do anything possible to keep your head above water.

But if it’s your opponent, be vicious. Did they forget to tip their bartender? Do they have unpaid parking tickets? Are their taxes always paid on time? They aren’t sleeping around on their spouse, right? And their staff — they had better be the most upstanding citizens on this side of Rt. 78, or they are on coffee duty till this blows over.

Politics in New Jersey is seen as a game. As staffers we play into it.

I got into politics as an idealistic 14-year old and am now, at 21, as jaded as they come. It’s no longer about the constituents. Forget doing good, what is in it for us? If we, as staffers, spend more time spinning bad numbers than actually doing the work of the people. Alexis De Tocqueville is turning over in his grave.

We don’t mind it though, as staffers. We’re all so bitter and unhappy, crushing the opponent is the only goal. And when when win, it’s better than sex. But we lost last night.

It’s vicious out there. Wear your seatbelt.

Mariel Rosen is a Senior at Montclair State University in New Jersey. For the past eight years, she has worked on campaigns at every level in New Jersey. Hire her.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.