Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By WILLIAM LAMB

STAFF WRITER

PARAMUS -- Assemblyman Gordon Johnson's contributions to perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche continued to cause political trouble for him Tuesday night, during a debate for the 37th District legislative candidates at Bergen Community College.

Under pressure from his Democratic running mates, Johnson apologized last week for making what he called "regrettable" contributions totaling $1,850 to LaRouche's political action committee in 2005 and 2006.

LaRouche, 85, has courted controversy for decades. Hailed by backers as an economist and philosopher and denounced by detractors as a conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite, LaRouche has run for president eight times, claiming that the U.S. financial system is on the verge of collapse. He served five years in prison in the late 1980s and early 1990s for mail fraud.

LaRouche supporters distributed literature outside the Ciccone Theater, where Tuesday's debate was held, saying the attacks on Johnson amounted to a "public lynching."

A woman was escorted from the theater after she accused the forum's sponsors -- The Record and the League of Women Voters of Bergen County -- of acting like a "lynch mob" for allowing a question about Johnson's ties to LaRouche.

When order was restored, Johnson said he was initially intrigued by LaRouche's allegations of "corruption in the pro-war actions of the Bush administration."

"I now see that supporting this individual has hurt a lot of people, so I apologize for that," he said. "And I ask people to look at my record, look at my character, look at my reputation. After that, I'm moving on."

One of Johnson's Republican challengers, Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz, said he was "surprised at Johnson's lack of judgment," adding that he was stunned that Johnson, an Army Reserve officer and former Englewood police officer, "just allowed everything to pile up and blow up in his face."

One of Johnson's Democratic running mates, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, said he had made a "large mistake." She said Johnson enjoys support in the district's large Jewish community and among members of "every ethnic community in northern New Jersey."

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who is on the same ticket as Johnson and Huttle, said the LaRouche issue had made her the target of a "two-prong attack, from the Republicans on one side and from some of my own party bosses on the other side." She was referring to Joseph Ferriero, chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization, who sent a letter to Johnson last week that criticized the assemblyman for supporting a "racist."

Michael Wildes, the Democratic mayor of Englewood, where Johnson is also a city councilman, called on Johnson to resign from his council seat Tuesday, saying that there is no way to reconcile a donation to a candidate as divisive as LaRouche.

The LaRouche issue provided much of the spectacle, but the candidates addressed other issues. None of the candidates was in favor of selling state assets such as the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway to generate revenue, though the Democratic assembly candidates said they would wait to see a report from the governor's office on the matter before making a final judgment.

All the candidates said they opposed raising the state's 14.5-cent gasoline tax to pay for repairs to roads and bridges.

The candidates split along party lines on a ballot question asking voters if the state should borrow $450 million to fund stem cell research over 10 years.

"I wholeheartedly support it," Weinberg said. "I think it's the science of the future. I think it will be an economic engine for the state of New Jersey as we become a center for biotechnical research."

Her Republican challenger, Clara Nibot, said it would be reckless for the state to take on additional debt next year. Nibot's running mate, assembly candidate Frank Cifarelli, said he opposes embryonic stem cell research on "moral and philosophical" grounds.

"We should not destroy life to save life," he said.