ESSEX COUNTY EXEC CHOWS DOWN ON CAMPAIGN DIME

The Star-Ledger reports on our wonderful county executive's wasteful spending:

NEWARK — Joseph DiVincenzo appears to campaign on his stomach.

The Essex County executive does not face re-election until 2014, but in the past year he has used his campaign to cover the cost of $15,222 in meals at 30 different restaurants — all labeled as campaign meetings — according to reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

There was the $302.86 tab at the pricey Sea Grill in Rockefeller Center last March (along with a $47 parking fee at the West 48th Street Parking Garage). The $480 bill that the campaign covered for a February 2012 meeting at the exclusive Palm restaurant at the El San Juan Hotel & Casino in Carolina, Puerto Rico. And the 36 times he dined at McLoone’s Boathouse in West Orange last year, with his re-election campaign picking up the check each time.

DiVincenzo’s campaign spending came under focus last year, after disclosures that he had amassed about $250,000 in charges on his personal credit card from 2002 to 2011, paying the bills with his campaign account without revealing what the money went toward. More than $3,000 was spent on a political retreat in Puerto Rico during the Super Bowl. He also used his campaign fund to pay for dozens of rounds of golf.

Read more HERE.