Editorial: Ray crosses the line in U.S. Senate run

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 8:53 a.m.

Independent counsel Robert Ray stepped down from his job on March 12. Two days later Ray announced he was running as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey. There's nothing wrong with Ray running for office, but it is troubling that information has surfaced that he tested the political waters while he was still independent counsel, possibly violating Justice Department guidelines that prohibit partisan political activities by independent counsels.

One Justice Department rule states that independent counsels should not speak at party functions, but the New York Times reported this week that Ray did just that last month in a Lincoln Day speech to Monmouth County Republicans. Ray said he looked "forward to the debate in the months ahead, the battleground of ideas and results rather than the paralysis of investigations and scandal," a not-too-subtle reference to the Justice Department's investigation of his likely Democratic opponent, Sen. Robert Torricelli.

Ray said he was exercising his First Amendment rights, but Americans expect federal prosecutors to be impartial and free of partisan interference, qualities that were in short supply in the just-concluded Whitewater probe that cost $70 million. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Ray broke ethical rules or laws before he formally announced his Senate run, a request that should be pursued.