The Trenton Times published the following article on January 31, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt says indictment of Trenton Mayor Tony Mack may hurt the city

By Emily Brill/Times of Trenton 
on January 31, 2013 at 7:30 AM, updated January 31, 2013 at 7:35 AM

TRENTON — When asked how he’d suggest curbing violence and corruption in the capital city, which was officially added to his district Jan. 1, U.S. Rep. Rush Holt shook his head.

“You want to throw up your hands or cry — I don’t quite know what the reaction is,” Holt said. “It’s a disgraceful situation.”

Holt mentioned his concern for Trenton’s reputation during an afternoon conversation yesterday with Times editors about city issues and gun control. He said there are no easy answers for issues of poverty, crime and corruption in the city.

Holt said he believes Trenton Mayor Tony Mack’s troubled tenure damaged the city’s standing with the state, even before Mack’s indictment for six counts of bribery, extortion and mail fraud last month, which may have hurt Trenton’s chances for grant funding, he said.

“In other cities, the mayors are better at working with the governor,” Holt said. “Here, it hasn’t worked.”

He said he has seen Trenton’s reputation as a poorly managed, violent city follow it to Washington as well. While advocating for a COPS grant for the city, Holt said he had to “push hard” to prove to federal agencies that Trenton would proactively use the money.

“There was a lot of hand-holding to get the application in, and then a lot of talking to the Department of Justice to see that the COPS grant would be approved,” Holt said. “The reputation of Trenton hurt it. When I went to the Department of Justice and said, ‘You’ve got to help,’ they said, ‘Trenton is beyond help.’”

Holt said he isn’t sure what to do about Trenton’s deep-seated problems.

“I’ll try to do what I can to get funding there. I can help in ways like that. But as far as rooting out corruption and illegality, I can’t do that,” Holt said. “It’s not something a congressional representative can fix by him or herself.”

Holt said he hoped certain national initiatives — namely, measures to curb gun violence — could have positive effects on cities like Trenton.

“If we can get the state to get behind the national effort to reduce gun violence, lots of people in Trenton would benefit,” Holt said.

Holt said he thinks a federal gun control bill has a better chance of passing now than it has in years.

While he doubts a uniform ban on semiautomatic weapons will pass, Holt said he believes Congress will advance legislation to strengthen background checks and restrict access to high-capacity magazines such as the AR-15, the weapon used in the Newtown, Conn., shooting.

“The momentum is different than I’ve seen in decades,” Holt said. “It’s because that man shot those babies — I mean, these were first graders.”

The state recently sponsored a gun buyback in Trenton that netted 2,604 firearms. About 40 percent of the weapons were handguns, the most commonly used murder weapon according to FBI data.

Trenton police recorded 165 shootings last year with 194 people shot. The majority of the city’s 24 murder victims last year were gunned down. There have been three fatal shootings in Trenton so far this year.

Contact Emily Brill at (609) 989-5731 or ebrill@njtimes.com.