For those who mock the great State of New Jersey, poking fun of the so-called “Culture of Corruption,” consider this spin: * A Governor of New Jersey has never been convicted of a crime, although Harold Hoffman, a Republican who served from 1935 to 1938, made a posthumous admission that he systematically stole tax dollars for years. * It’s been 25 years since a New Jersey Congressman was indicted. Frank Thompson, Jr., a 13-term Democrat from Trenton, was convicted in the Abscam scandal. Democrat Henry Helstoski was acquitted on his 1975 corruption charge and later went on to serve as the Superintendent of Schools in North Bergen. * Only two United States Senators from New Jersey have actually served prison time: Harrison Williams, a four-term Democrat who was convicted in Abscam and resigned in 1981; and Jonathan Dayton, a Senator from 1799 to 1805, who was accused of conspiring with Aaron Burr to commit treason in 1807. Dayton, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, was released and never brought to trial, and seven years later made a political comeback when he won a State Assembly seat.
