Road Map: 'Star-Ledger' Prints Driving Records Of All N.J. Legislators

By: Joe Strupp When New Jersey state legislators began reviewing the system for regulating suspended driver's licenses last year, The Star-Ledger of Newark decided to look into the lawmakers' own driving records.

The result: a remarkable two-page report in Sunday's paper detailing the driving histories of each state senator and assembly member who has had a suspended license, moving violation, or an accident. The report, a culmination of about three-month's work, revealed that 26 of New Jersey's 120 state legislators had had their license or registration suspended, more than once in the case of 15 of them.

The report also revealed that 74 others had either received tickets for moving violations or been in an accident, noting even those whose accidents were reportedly not their fault.

"We believed it would be relevant and of interest to look at the legislative driving records since the legislators were taking up changes in the law about suspensions," Editor Jim Willse said Monday. "I wasn't surprised or not surprised [at the findings]. We didn't know what we would find when we went in."

Only 20 state legislators were found to have "clean" driving records. Their photos were placed at the bottom of the report's second page.

In some of the individual write-ups the lawmaker was allowed to react. Several said they could remember some of the reported incidents but not all of them.

The report came about as the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission's Affordability and Fairness Task Force is finishing a seven-month review "that will propose changes in the state's much-maligned system for regulating driver's licenses and registrations," the paper stated in an introduction to the package by reporters Joe Maliconico and Rudy Larini.

The lawmaker's records ranged from Sen. Robert Singer, a Republican who was involved in four accidents since 1991, included one that resulted in a fatality--but no criminal charges--to Sen. Shirley Turner, a Democrat who was in a 2004 "fender-bender" that was not her fault.

"I don't think that I should have been included with others who have violations and tickets," said Turner, who has spent 11 years in the legislature. "Anyone can have an accident and not be responsible. I don't see why that is something that should be in the paper."

Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, a third-term legislator, was among the 26 highlighted for suspended licenses. His background showed his drivers license suspended twice, and his registration once. In addition, it noted he had received 10 moving violations and been in five accidents since 1980.

Cryan said checking his records during his time in the statehouse is fair, but criticized looking at those that date back to his early 20s. "Going back to 1980 was cheap, really cheap," he told E&P. "The Ledger, it seems, has gone to a standard that is lower."

Assemblyman Thomas Giblin, a Democrat elected in 2005, called the report "part of the process of right to know" and said he did not have a problem with the Star-Ledger package that showed he had one accident, in 1995, but offered no details. Still, he believed that "there are more important issues to focus on if you want to prioritize."

Willse said he had not heard of any negative reaction to the report, but was out of the office this morning and contacted by cell phone. Other editors at the paper did not return calls seeking comment.