Labor leaders to help retire Lesniak debt

Some of the state’s most powerful union leaders are hosting a fundraising breakfast this month to help former State Sen. Raymond Lesniak retire some of the debt on his 2017 campaign for governor.

Lesniak loaned his campaign $155,000 last year and some old friends are helping him reclaim some of those funds.  New Jersey Building and Construction Trades Council president Bill Mullen, Union County Building and Construction Trades Council president Gary Pfarr are running the event, and Senate President Steve Sweeney and Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) are also on the invitation.  Sweeney is an official with the Iron Workers union, and Norcross was the president of the South Jersey AFL-CIO before his election to Congress.

Also helping Lesniak are five legislators who are longtime building trades union leaders: State Sen. Troy Singleton (D-Palmyra) and Assemblymen Joseph Egan (D-New Brunswick), Tom Giblin (D-Montclair), Wayne D’Angelo (D-Hamilton) and Eric Houghtaling (D-Neptune).