PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:16 pm Post subject: Menendez, Scarinci were team from start Reply with quote Scandal robs campaign of an influential force Sunday, October 01, 2006 BY TED SHERMAN AND JOSH MARGOLIN Star-Ledger Staff Their friendship began more than 30 years ago on the front steps of the Union City boyhood home of Bob Menendez, then just a kid in college who wanted to fight city hall. Donald Scarinci, the 16-year-old editor of the student newspaper at Union Hill High School, got together with Menendez to organize a petition drive pushing for an elected board of education in the small, oft-times corrupt Hudson County enclave where politics has always been an ongoing blood sport between would-be reformers and those holding power. There were other campaigns over the years -- for school board, mayor, the state Legislature, Congress and now for U.S. Senate -- and for the two, it has always been a path traveled together. Like Holmes and Watson, Butch and Sundance, Bert and Ernie, (detractors say Bonnie and Clyde), Menendez and Scarinci were partners, moving up the food chain of New Jersey politics as one. Scarinci set the table and Menendez did the serving. The younger Scarinci raised the money, advised the campaigns, and ran the politics. He became the close confidant; the inside man to Menendezs outside, public face on the ballot. It was a friendship that served both well. Scarinci was the lawyer, the influential backroom operator who could swing an election slate -- or bring one down. Those contacts also helped land lucrative municipal and government contracts for his growing North Jersey law firm. Menendez became a power in his home county, and realized a life-long dream of becoming a U.S. Senator. Theyve been together in politics for as long as Ive known Bob, observed state Sen. Bernard Kenny Jr. (D-Hudson). But last week Menendezs longtime ally suddenly became an embarrassing liability to the Democratic senator, locked in an increasingly bitter race against Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. A politically damaging tape, secretly recorded seven years ago, surfaced as part of a court suit in Hudson County. On it, Scarinci talks of his political power and urges a Union City psychiatrist who had contracts with the Hudson County jail and a county hospital to hire someone as a favor to Menendez. During the 1999 conversation, the psychiatrist, Oscar Sandoval, complained he was having trouble getting his contracts signed with Hudson County. According to a transcript, Scarinci urged that he hire physician Vicente Ruiz as a favor to the congressman. If you can deal with Dr. Ruiz and make him happy, Menendez will consider that a favor. If you cant, then thats okay, Scarinci is quoted as saying. The tape was made shortly before Sandoval began cooperating with the U.S. Attorney as part of an investigation into corruption in Hudson County. Neither Scarinci nor Menendez were accused of any wrongdoing; however the conversation has now set off a political crisis for the incumbent Democrat. Menendez claimed he never knew Scarinci had invoked his name, and his campaign immediately said it was severing ties with Scarinci. His daughter, recent Harvard Law School graduate Alicia Menendez, resigned from Scarincis law firm. As it relates to Donalds comments, I am disappointed in him, Menendez said. Nothing Scarinci said in that tape was at my direction. But tellingly, Menendez still said he remains a close friend of Scarinci: I am not severing ties with him on a personal basis. Scarinci would not comment for this story. Those who know the two men said theirs was a relationship born in the idealism of youth that grew even closer after both emerged unscathed in the corruption investigation that led to the 1982 conviction of Union City Mayor William Musto, once a mentor to both. This has to be enormously painful for him, said former Scarinci law partner Michael Murphy. He would never want any fallout from him to affect Bobs political career. Yes, hes a prolific fundraiser. But more importantly, hes a wise adviser and counselor. In past interviews, Scarinci has said his involvement with the petition drive in Union City as a high school student led to a real friendship with Menendez. They would meet every Saturday at Tedescos in West New York for pizza -- bar pies and soda -- and talk politics. We never had idle time. I never remember sitting with Bob and watching a movie and eating popcorn. We never had time for that, Scarinci once explained. Paul Moses, a former reporter for the now defunct Hudson Dispatch in Union City who is now a journalism professor at Brooklyn College, recalled that the two met Bill Musto through a former teacher. Bob, who was elected to the school board, also became a city hall aide to Musto. When Bob left those positions to become school board secretary, Donald took Bobs job as a city hall aide, he said. According to Moses, both soon became very disillusioned with Musto. Donald and Bob spoke constantly as they tried to figure out how to deal with what increasingly appeared to be a corrupt Union City administration, he said. So it was a difficult time for them and they became very close. Moses noted that Menendezs role in exposing and opposing Musto has often been noted, but Scarincis has not. In terms of galvanizing the opposition behind the scenes -- really, giving each other the courage -- Scarinci played a key role, said the former reporter. To some, the tone of the tape that appeared last week implied the one-time reformers had themselves become players in the kind of political machine they had battled as young men. Kean campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker labeled Scarinci and Menendez The Bonnie and Clyde of Hudson County politics. Murphy, though, downplayed the tape. Theres a lot of posturing that goes on in the political world when the doors are closed, whether or not the tape is running, Murphy said. Scarinci, 50, for the most part has always been in the background. Articulate and well-versed in campaign finance law, he authored a biography last year of David Brearley, an obscure framer of the Constitution (the book includes in its preface a note of thanks to Menendez). A self-admitted chocoholic who would much rather have ice cream than a beer, Scarinci is considered an expert on colonial coins and is a member of a committee that advised the Department of the Treasury on coinage. He has served as counsel to the Democratic members of both the Congressional and Legislative Redistricting Commissions in New Jersey, but still remains little known outside of politics. He once told a reporter he ran for office only one time, coming out on the losing side of a 1982 school board election in the waning years of Mustos influence. It was the best thing that ever happened to me, he has said. As he recounted at the time, a blizzard shut down the state on the day of the election, and Gov. Tom Kean canceled the school board elections in the state for two weeks. Over those two weeks, Mustos operatives visited everyone who was supporting the alliance against the mayors administration in the local election, and none of those on the reform slate won. While he has never held elective office, Scarinci has long been acknowledged as a potent political force. He was once named Politician of the Year by politicsnj, a Web site detailing the comings and goings of New Jersey politics, and appeared on its list of the states 100 most powerful political figures and operatives. Murphy pointed out Scarinci is a chess master. Thats a metaphor for what he does, he observed. He told me it sharpens your wits. Scarincis influence has been very real. He engineered a successful drive in 2000 to oust former Union City Mayor Raul Rudy Garcia, a onetime Menendez protégé who had a bitter falling out with the senator. In a political melodrama that brought in all the hallmarks of a typical Hudson County fight -- allegations of corruption, money, power and subpoenas -- Garcia fired Scarinci as corporation counsel of Union City. He claimed the attorney was milking the city for thousands in unwarranted legal fees. Scarinci, who had initially been named to the job by Menendez when the senator was Union City mayor, charged Garcia had mismanaged the citys finances. Garcia was eventually ousted from city hall, and opted not to run for re-election to his seat in the New Jersey Assembly. He declined comment. Scarinci also helped stop former Sen. Robert Torricelli from wresting the gubernatorial nomination from James E. McGreevey in 2000 -- what many still refer to as the 12 Days of Torricelli. Scarinci would later serve as counsel to McGreeveys transition team. Critics charge he has used his statewide influence and ties to Menendez and the McGreevey administration to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees on municipal contracts and work for state authorities. His firm, Scarinci & Hollenbeck, became counsel to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission after McGreeveys election. It has also gained work in municipalities including Passaic and Hoboken, after Scarinci supported winning mayoral candidates in both cities. In the wake of last weeks revelation, Gov. Jon Corzine encouraged the state Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to terminate Scarincis contract to serve as the agencys chief lawyer. An examination of state campaign finance records shows Scarinci and his law firm contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to state candidates and political committees over the past 20 years. Scarinci has said his firm has turned away in recent years from representing government agencies, which he said now account for less than 20 percent of its work. Even some of the political trophies he once had in his Lyndhurst office vanished some time ago. Included were two letters he had framed as watershed marks: one from Musto, informing him he had been fired; the other from Garcia, terminating his services as corporation counsel. In their place now is a large photo on his office wall that shows him standing next to Menendez -- and the Dalai Lama.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:15:00 +0000
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