Vigilance of voters has increased since sting

Today marks the second anniversary of the Operation Bid Rig sting that saw the roundup of 11 Monmouth County area officials on federal corruption charges. Since that day, parallel and related investigations by the FBI have spread to Ocean and Middlesex counties, leading to indictments against dozens of government officials and businessmen. After all of the arrests, some debate if anything has really changed. We say it has.

For one, the removal of former Mayor Matthew Scannapieco has certainly made a tangible difference in Marlboro. As he admitted to the court, Scannapieco manipulated the controls of government for years to support building projects proposed by developer Anthony Spalliero, who has yet to face trial. The damage the mayor caused in Marlboro is formidable, and there's no more visible symbol of that than the vacant Marlboro Airport property. Once a unique and beloved place firmly stitched into the fabric of Monmouth County, it has been closed off to pilots and overgrown since it became the center of a corruption scandal a few years back.

And how about the arrest of the human campaign finance machine known as John Lynch? Recently described by former Gov. James McGreevey as one of three Democratic "warlords" whose support was essential to get to win that office, the former state Senate president from Middlesex County is now serving time in a Pennsylvania prison for selling his influence to ease a South Brunswick sand mining company's expansion application. His political action committee doled out hundreds of thousands of dollars to candidates around the state from special interests in recent years, and we can only imagine what a man with that sort of Rolodex was capable of.

There are others who are viewed as smaller fish, people whose crimes, some argue, were not significant enough to justify the costs of the investigations against them. We disagree. Probably more important than the $3,000 bribe some councilmen took was that their willingness to sell out the public was exposed. For every kickback they may have taken from an undercover FBI agent, who knows how many more they took from contractors, developers and other special interests, and what they got in return. It's crucial for public officials with that sort of mentality to be dislodged.

The biggest difference between today and Feb. 21, 2005, is on the part of the public. These investigations have raised a new awareness among voters, and it has shown at the polls. Over the past two years, those candidates most closely associated with the scandals have been tossed from office time and time again. Yes, other corrupt officials can take their places, but it won't be easier.

Terms like pay-to-play and no-bid contracts are far more familiar to a general public that took much less interest in local politics before. These people may have previously viewed government in general as corrupt, but not their government.

They're watching closer now. Despite all of the ugly headlines and negative attention brought to these towns, that's the great positive that has come from these investigations. We hope that vigilance lasts well beyond U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie's time in office.