Andy Kim should tell NJ Citizen Action to beat it!

According to a press release issued by New Jersey for a Better Future, a group media accounts claim is tied to New Jersey Citizen Action, they plan to launch a $1 million media attack on Tom MacArthur, a two-term Republican congressman from Toms River.  Of course, this will benefit Andy Kim, the Democrat challenging MacArthur.

To understand who Andy Kim is getting into bed with and what New Jersey Citizen Action is all about, you need go no further than the group's attempt to scam New Jersey's taxpayers through something called the New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act, better known as the “Residential Destruction Act”.  This legislation (S-1566/A-2168) was designed to grease the skids for banks to push property taxpaying, working families out on to the streets. 

The “Residential Destruction Act” legislation had the potential to completely and totally change the way New Jersey families live.  It enabled the state to create a corporation to sell bonds in order to purchase foreclosed homes in any neighborhood, slap them with a 30 year deed restriction making them low income subsidized housing, and then turn around and sell or rent the property to recently released criminals, homeless people, sexual predators, and a myriad of others who would never be able to afford to live in these homes. 

In short, this was the largest expansion of State Government ever undertaken by Trenton.  Property values would have been destroyed, once safe neighborhoods would become new hunting grounds for criminals, and the days of neighborhood tranquility shattered from Bergen County to Cape May County.

Support for this legislation came from an alliance of Wall Street banking interests and ACORN-like organizations who service “clients” who would get the homes that would be taken from hard-working taxpayers who fell behind on their mortgage.  Citigroup was one of the interest groups that testified on behalf of S-1566/A-2168 and it has an atrocious record of pushing families out of their homes and onto the streets. 

In fact, there's a federal class action lawsuit that accuses CitiMortgage of illegally foreclosing on the homes of "thousands" of service men and women on active military duty.  This is in direct violation of the Service members Civil Relief Act. 

While our troops were over in Iraq and Afghanistan worrying about how to stay alive, fighting for our freedom, back home these special interest were trying to figure out how to make it so they didn’t have a home to come back to.  It’s disgusting.

The “Residential Destruction Act” passed both chambers of the New Jersey Legislature with strong support from a lot of those same Democrats who Andy Kim calls allies.  Fortunately, it was vetoed by then Governor Chris Christie.

So here is the challenge for Andy Kim:  (1) Tell New Jersey for a Better Future and New Jersey Citizen Action to get out of the Third District and take their schemes -- like the “Residential Destruction Act” -- with them.  (2) Will you publically repudiate the members of your party who voted to make it easier for banking interests to throw working families out on the streets – and to use taxpayers’ money to do it?

(3) Will you repudiate the Wall Street lobbyists and groups like Citizen Action for getting together and supporting this scheme that tried to benefit from the misfortune of others?  Don’t you think it is immoral for your allies in the New Jersey Legislature to have anything to do with making it more advantageous to Wall Street to push families onto the streets? 

This issue isn’t going away Andy.  If you fail to take a stand, we will keep asking questions.