By Joseph Ax, Staff Writer, THE RECORD

Republican Senate challenger Clara Nibot assailed Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood, on Thursday for seven contributions he made in 2005 and 2006 to the political action committee of eight-time presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

Nibot pointed to allegations of anti-Semitism against LaRouche and called on her opponent, Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, to distance herself from her running mate's actions.

"He's giving to an individual whose anti-Semitism is more than clear," Nibot said. "He shouldn't be representing the 37th District."

Johnson said he gave the money, which totaled $1,850 between August 2005 and November 2006, to the organization to help it expose corruption in President Bush's administration.

He said he has heard the accusations but has never seen anything to convince him that LaRouche is prejudiced. He also said the young person who first approached him in 2005 on behalf of the group was Jewish.

"They had a mission at the time to expose the culprits in the Bush administration," Johnson said. He said he stopped giving money last year because he felt that the mission had been accomplished.

Lyndon LaRouche

• Born in Rochester, N.H., on Sept. 8, 1922.

• Economist, political activist, pamphlet writer.

• Served in Army medical units in India and Burma during World War II.

• Best known as a perennial candidate for president -- running eight times -- whose followers solicit money on sidewalks.

• Founded the U.S. Labor Party in the early 1970s.

• Sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1988 for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and tax code violations.

• Paroled after five years and resumed political activity.

• Opposed invasion of Iraq.

LaRouche has run for president eight times since 1976, once from a jail cell in 1992 while serving a prison term for mail fraud conspiracy and defaulting on millions of dollars in loans from supporters. An economist and philosopher, LaRouche has centered his campaigns on what he says is the coming collapse of the economic system. He is not running for president in 2008.

He has run as a Democrat seven times, despite the disapproval of the Democratic National Committee. Critics have accused him of extremism and anti-Semitism, a charge he has denied.

The Anti-Defamation League maintains he is anti-Semitic, and when LaRouche sought to get on the Democrats' presidential primary ballot in Texas in 2003, Terry McAuliffe, then the national party chairman, said LaRouche is not a "bona fide" Democrat.

"This determination is based on Mr. LaRouche's expressed political beliefs, including beliefs which are explicitly racist and anti-Semitic, and otherwise utterly contrary to the fundamental beliefs, values and tenets of the Democratic Party," McAuliffe said in a letter to Texas party officials.

Weinberg kept her comments brief Thursday.

"Gordon Johnson is my running mate," she said. "I have a lot of respect for him, but I don't always agree with everything he does."

LaRouche has a network of youths called the LaRouche Youth Movement, whose members can sometimes be seen soliciting donations on the street and disrupting political debates.

Johnson said he was "impressed" with LaRouche's grass-roots effort and the way he had managed to inspire youths. He acknowledged LaRouche's controversial persona but said that did not necessarily mean his positions are without merit.

"I find LaRouche to be kind of an extremist, kind of an outsider, so to speak," Johnson said. "Just because he's different doesn't mean he doesn't have some good ideas."

Nibot said the contributions show that Johnson's words do not match his actions, a theme she has pushed in recent weeks. She has criticized Johnson for supporting a dual office-holding ban while serving in the Assembly and on the Englewood City Council.

Johnson said Nibot's attack regarding the LaRouche money was "much ado about nothing."

"We should be debating issues that are important to the taxpayers of New Jersey," he said.