Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

4 of the last 8 mayors were brought up on charges, and last year the city council had 1/3 of it's members in prison or under house arrest. I miss AC [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

By Jon Hurdle

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey (Reuters) - To most Americans Atlantic City is host to seedy casinos, poverty, crime, murder and corrupt politics.

Now the one-time home of Miss America is in the news for all the wrong reasons again; its mayor has gone missing after being caught embellishing his Vietnam War record.

Mayor Robert Levy told aides on September 29 he was taking sick leave, and verbally transferred authority to city official Domenic Capella in a move that members of the city council say is illegal. Levy has not been heard from since.

The crisis brought New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine to the city's famed boardwalk on Friday where he told a news conference, "What the situation is today can't go on for any extended period of time."

"I don't think it's slipping into dysfunctionality but it very easily could do," he said.

Corzine said he had asked the state's attorney general to look into whether Levy's actions were an abandonment of office and called on city leaders to resolve the crisis soon.

"I'm not here to advocate for a state takeover," he said.

Members of the nine-seat city council asked the state attorney general if Levy was entitled to hand power to Capella, and at least one councilor is seeking a declaration from a judge that Levy acted illegally.

Capella did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Corzine refused to say who he thought should become mayor if Levy turns out to have abandoned his office and said he did not know where Levy is.

He refused to comment on reports the mayor is under investigation by federal authorities for falsifying his military record and taking a pension linked to his military service in Vietnam.

Nick Morici, a spokesman for Levy, said on Friday he had "no concrete information" on the reports of the investigation.

"I don't expect him to resign," Morici said, adding he knew nothing of Levy's condition or whereabouts.

Past mayors of Atlantic City have included Michael Matthews, ejected by voters in March 1983 after being charged with extortion and taking bribes for himself and the Mafia.

In 1989, James Usry, the city's first black mayor, was arrested along with 13 other political leaders to face charges including bribery, conspiracy, and accepting unlawful gifts.

City councilor Bruce Ward said in an interview that the council has asked the New Jersey Superior Court in Atlantic City to declare that the mayor's position has been vacated in light of Levy's actions.

"City Hall is being run illegally," Ward said.

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Re: Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

As I have announced earlier:

With the absence of Robert Levy, I, Mr. AtlanticCity, have named myself Acting Mayor of Atlantic City.

Thank you, and may God Bless Atlantic City.

Re: Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

And as my first act, I am going to replace the Governor with one that has proper English grammar.

"I don't think it's slipping into dysfunctionality but it very easily could do," he said.

Re: Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

Joe Pesci for MAyor or that Larry the cable guy

Re: Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

There is no need to panic. With myself as Acting Mayor, City operations will continue as normal until bias elections can be held.

Re: Atlantic City - hot bed of political corruption
 

Atlantic City - Small town scandal. Because of the joints, Atlantic City gets a lot of notoriety for a place with less than 40 thousand residents. I was in that town once, during election time. It was like, "who's running for class president?". They all know each other.

nineinchal for Mayor of Atlantic City...
 

I am an Atlantic City resident as of August 3,2007. When I am elected I you may address me as Mayor nineinch. I propose my candidacy under the marijuana legalization party. You know, the party with the pot leaf that I see every November that heads (no pun intended) up its own column in the voting booth, while I am pulling the lever for the Republican candidates, since I am brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh to vote Republican only. I also laugh my ass off when I see the marijuana party actually being given recognition as a party (get it, party, marijuana party). Anyway, I digress.

I am a CPA and have been an operational auditor auditing the government and non-profit corporations for the last tweny five years. I am officially announcing my candidacy for mayor of Atlantic City on the platform of cleaning up the corruption that all of the dirty politicians have been enabling since the days when Al Capone visited the Ritz Carlton.

I also propose a monorail along Pacific Avenue out to the Marina for the purposes of shuttling casino patrons amongst the various casinos. I also propose a better coordination of traffic lights along Atlantic Avenue so the Average Joe can have faster and easier access to the casinos.

My revolutionary plan is to require the casinos to increase the minimum comp rate to poker players to twenty per cent of the rake or rent, without further increases in current rake or rent rates. Also, casinos must provide buffets that don't suck like the Taj or the Trop.

I will further mandate that the Trop and the Hilton make a much better effort of operating their poker rooms by having higher limit games in the range of 10/20 and 20/40. Further, the name Trump shall be banned within city limits, never to be written or uttered again, as well as Donald Trump's image be removed on such tacky things as water bottles, steaks and clothing. However, I will forego the above ban if Trump ponies up the money for the monorail, then he can be the mayor, since he really would have contributed something that would make a difference to this stinking town.

Re: nineinchal for Mayor of Atlantic City...
 

By the way, could the marijuana candidates really have done a worse job than the current mayor? Pot smokers aren't really the most ambitious thieves. They can't even muster up enough energy to show up at their own rally to legalize dope.

Re: nineinchal for Mayor of Atlantic City...
 

The cities of Camden and Newark scoff at these amateurish attempts at corruption.

And, my personal favorite (due to home-county bias), the old local prosecutors derailing FBI corruption probe in Monmouth County:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/nyregi...istopher%20J%2e

Re: nineinchal for Mayor of Atlantic City...
 

Where is Sharpe "Robert Mugabe" James when you need him?