[NYTr] Who Is DeForest Soaries, Bush's Election Czar?

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

[This is the dude Bush has empowered to cancel our election. Don't
miss the second item, on his housing activities.

The original Malcom and Martin must be spinning in their graves.
See last sentence of this official bio. --NY Transfer]

Election "Assistance" Commission - "Making Every Vote Count" <snort!>
http://www.eac.gov/soaries.asp
DeForest B. Soaries, Chair


                    DeForest Blake Soaries

Appointed to an initial four year term, Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. was
elected Chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission at the
agency’s first public meeting on March 23, 2004.

In February 2003, Dr. Soaries was appointed by President Bush to serve as
a public director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. He was a
member of the affordable housing committee of the bank.

 From January 12, 1999 to January 15, 2002, Dr. Soaries served as New
Jersey's 30th Secretary of State. Appointed by former Governor Christine
Todd Whitman, he managed one of the premier departments of State
government and served as a senior advisor to the governor on issues that
transcended traditional departmental lines.

Dr. Soaries is also the Senior Pastor of the 7,000 member First Baptist
Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey. A pioneer of
faith-based community development, Dr. Soaries has led First Baptist in
the construction of a new $17 million church complex and the formation of
many not-for-profit entities to serve the community surrounding the
church.

Highlights of Dr. Soaries’ work include: recruiting families to become
foster parents to 300 abandoned babies; helping 45 children find adoptive
parents; constructing 96 new homes for low and moderate income residents
to own; creating the first faith-based Cisco Technology Academy in the
country; operating the Central New Jersey STRIVE program for job
readiness; serving hundreds of youth in an after school center and
homework club; forming a youth entrepreneurship program and redeveloping
commercial real estate.

Dr. Soaries earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Fordham University; a
Master of Divinity Degree from Princeton Theological Seminary; and a
Doctor of Ministry Degree from United Theological Seminary. He has also
received six honorary Doctorate degrees from institutions of higher
learning. Additionally, Dr. Soaries has taught courses at Princeton
Theological Seminary, Drew University Theological School, Kean University
and Mercer County College.

Dr. Soaries has received numerous awards for his leadership and community
service. He was recently recognized by both houses of the New Jersey
Legislature for his religious and community leadership.

Dr. Soaries is married to Margaret Donna Soaries and is the father of twin
sons, Malcolm and Martin.

                             ***


His "housing activity"

The Courier News - July 12, 2004
http://www.c-n.com/news/c-n/story/0,2111,1001677,00.html

Residents fight to save homes from wrecking ball

By STEFANIE MATTESON
Staff Writer

FRANKLIN (Somerset) -- About 25 picket-carrying residents demonstrated in
front of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in the Somerset
section Sunday in protest against a redevelopment project sponsored by the
church's community development affiliates.

Chanting slogans such as "Your home next" and "We don't live in an urban
slum," the protesters, made up mostly of residents and business owners in
the Gateway Redevelopment District, demonstrated against a plan to acquire
56 properties by eminent domain and raze them to make way for a Pathmark
supermarket.

The 60,000-square-foot supermarket would be built by Pennrose Properties,
a Philadelphia-based firm, in cooperation with the Renaissance Development
Group, which represents the church's development affiliates. The aim is to
fill the void created when a nearby ShopRite went out of business last
year.

The 15-acre Renaissance Gateway Project, as it is called, is centered near
the intersection of Franklin Boulevard and Somerset Street.

One aim of the demonstration was to call attention to an upcoming Township
Council vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would take away the township
redevelopment agency's eminent domain powers, said Court Throckmorton,
director of the 35-member Somerset Street Business and Community
Association, which staged the demonstration.

The church's redevelopment affiliates have "sold out to big development,"
said Throckmorton, who owns a home and residence in a nearby redevelopment
district. "This is a low- to moderate-income neighborhood. If these people
do lose their homes, they couldn't afford to replace them and stay in the
town."

But the church's senior pastor, the Rev. DeForest "Buster" Soaries Jr.,
said the group's quarrel is with the township rather than the church's
development affiliates, which do not have the power of eminent domain.
Moreover, he said the church would not support a development that was
opposed by the neighborhood.

"If the neighborhood doesn't want a supermarket, we won't build it," said
Soaries, calling the demonstration "much ado about nothing." He added that
he wasn't "a man in search of a job," especially in light of his new
appointment. Soaries, the former New Jersey secretary of state, was on his
way to Austria to address officials from democratic countries on the issue
of sustaining democracy in an age of terror. He is chairman of the U.S.
Election Assistance Commission, which is charged with setting new
standards for federal elections.

The church, which opened a new $25 million facility adjacent to the
Gateway Redevelopment District in October, has been a force behind
redevelopment of the area, he said. The area stretches for three blocks
along Somerset Street, from Millstone Road to Camner Avenue, and is
bordered by Frank Street at the rear.

Republican township Mayor Brian Levine said Friday that he supports the
move to strip the Redevelopment Agency of its eminent domain powers and
will introduce an ordinance to that effect at Tuesday's meeting. He also
said he would oppose the inclusion of an area along Camner Avenue between
Frank and Fuller streets in the redevelopment zone.

In order to build the Pathmark, an additional area, Block 123, would have
to be included in the redevelopment zone, with the houses there also being
subject to eminent domain. Many pickets carried signs saying "No Rezoning
in Block 123."

Throckmorton said the threat of eminent domain has contributed to blight
in the redevelopment district. Confronted with the prospect that the
township might acquire their properties, new businesses are reluctant to
invest in the area, and existing businesses and homeowners are reluctant
to improve their properties, he said.

"No one has a sense of future," he said.

Moreover, he said most of the rundown housing in the neighborhood is owned
by the township, which has failed to either sell or rehabilitate it.

Also represented at the demonstration were members of a citizens group
called Taxpayers United in Franklin, who said the proposed development
would have adverse tax consequences in the form of tax incentives that
would be used to lure the supermarket to the neighborhood, and in lost
ratables at the ShopRite site.

Rather than building a new Pathmark, the township should attract a new
supermarket to the vacant building formerly occupied by ShopRite, said
Chip Hoever, founder of the organization. Levine also questioned the tax
breaks Pathmark would be given to entice it to open a store in the area.

Soaries said he was offended that the demonstrators would disrupt Sunday
services without first talking to church administrators and that the
demonstrators would take issue with the church, which has demonstrated its
commitment to the neighborhood.

Some members of the 6,000-member congregation agreed.

"His (Soaries') intention is not to do evil," said parishioner Erin Conde,
referring to the passages from scripture some demonstrators were chanting.
"He has no intention of doing evil to anyone; we're all Christians here."

But demonstrators said they in turn were offended by the labeling of their
neighborhood as a slum. In a July letter to the mayor and to members of
the council and the redevelopment agency, Soaries lamented the township's
lack of support for the church's efforts to revitalize the neighborhood.

"Recent comments ... cause me to wonder whether or not we are actually
committed to improving the quality of life in this neighborhood, which has
all the demographic characteristics an urban slum," the letter said.

"I'm offended that someone would call our block a poverty-stricken,
uneducated one," said Janae Bowling, 13, whose grandmother's house is in
the redevelopment district. "How can anyone here know what's best for us?
They say my grandmother will be taken care of, but how can I be sure?"

Soaries said that census data show the neighborhood to be the most
economically depressed area in the county. Without community commitment to
affordable redevelopment, market forces eventually will drive residents
out of the area, leaving them with no place to live, he said.

As for the slum comment, Soaries said, "The income levels and education
levels are consistent with what people call a slum," he said. "If it walks
like a duck and quacks like a duck, don't blame me for calling it a duck."

Stefanie Matteson can be reached at (908) 707-3136 or smatteson at c-n.com.