What's up with Corzine $362,500 hush hush payoff?

An Asbury Park Press editorial calls Governor Corzine out in regard to an out of court settlement to the brother-in-law of his former girlfriend, who also happens to be the target of ethics complaints against the Governor.

Rocco Riccio, brother-in-law of union leader and former Corzine girlfriend Carla Katz, accused Corzine of reneging on a promise to find him a private-sector job after Corzine's staff asked him to leave his state post amid controversies involving Katz.

Riccio had worked in state government since 1994, but resigned from the Treasury Department in 2006 after someone accused him of improperly looking up tax records of Corzine's enemies. He resurfaced — with the help of Corzine's office — at the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, but was asked to resign within weeks by the governor's staff amid the controversy over the relationship between Corzine and Katz.

The newspaper didn't mince words when passing judgement on the settlement:

The whole episode stinks. Aside from Corzine's handling of the situation, which smacks of typical New Jersey politics — throw money at any and all problems to make them go away — there are too many unanswered questions about the Corzine-Katz-Riccio soap opera. Chief among them are the payout and a $15,000 gift Corzine gave Riccio in early 2007, the multimillion-dollar "settlement" Corzine gave Katz when their relationship ended and Corzine's overzealous efforts to block public disclosure of his e-mail exchanges with Katz during union negotiations.

This ongoing saga continues to bubble under the surface and not one chapter of the story passes the blink test. As Corzine keeps fighting to keep emails between himself and Katz private (even though in addition to being his girlfriend she was negotiating for a major public employees union), this really reads like the Governor fighting to silence someone who could be called upon in a criminal investigation. If at some point it is determined that Corzine did something wrong with Katz, would this not qualify for a conspiracy count or two?

I remember one other Governor of New Jersey who put an unqualified on the public payroll of a key state agency. I don't think that one turned out very well.

Read the entire article here.

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