De Luca on Mayoral Arrests

The New Jersey politicians arrested by the FBI this morning are from Bergen and Hudson County. Still, the arrests are reverberating with politicians throughout the state. 

“It’s terrible,” Maplewood Mayor Vic De Luca said. “It’s terrible for the state and it’s terrible for everybody who’s trying to do the right thing.”

De Luca said he had met Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano briefly through the League of Municipalities before Cammarano became Mayor, but was not familiar with Secaucus Mayor Denis Elwell, who was also arrested today. De Luca worried about the impact Cammarano’s arrest would have on the city.

“The tragedy is that [Cammarano] was just elected,” De Luca said. “How do you deal with having your Mayor in office for a month and then taken away in handcuffs?”

De Luca stressed that the men had not yet been proven guilty of charges, but said he supported prosecuting corrupt politicians to the full extent of the law. He was angered and saddened at the alleged violation of the public trust by the men, and said that such acts are “devastating to the political process.”

“We just can’t take too many more of these things,” De Luca said.