By Matt Rooney | September 15, 2008

Lehman Brothers isn't the only newly-humbled financial giant. The Bergen Record reports that the Bergen County Democratic Organization is in the red to the tune of almost $1M:

Campaigns financed and micromanaged by the Bergen County Democratic Organization over the last four years are saddled with $925,000 in unpaid debts and loans, according to Election Law Enforcement Reports filed in July.

Although that money is owed by individual candidates, the debt is effectively the BCDO's responsibility. That's because Ferriero - now on leave from his role as BCDO chairman - raised the bulk of each candidate's funds, oversaw the spending, and dictated campaign strategy out of the party's Hackensack headquarters. The BCDO's treasurer, Matthew McCarter, also served as each candidate's treasurer.

County Executive Dennis McNerney's account still owes vendors nearly $98,000 for advertising, lawn signs and research from his 2006 campaign. Freeholder candidates Julie O'Brien and Connie Wagner (now an assemblywoman) have yet to pay $193,000 to vendors for similar expenses incurred in 2006.

More than two-thirds of the debt is listed as unpaid "loans'' the BCDO made to each candidate's campaign. The account for Freeholders James Carroll, Tomas Padilla and Elizabeth Calabrese still hasn't repaid a $340,000 loan for the 2004 race, records show. And county Sherriff Leo McGuire is still on the hook to the BCDO for $151,000.

Bergen Democratic leaders have no one to blame but themselves. Ferriero's often-lonely critic, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, points out that power "was consolidated in one person because so many people let it happen. Nobody is a boss unless he is enabled." Municipal committeemen allowed a crook to run their organization and, so long as the election victories continued, no one seemed concerned about where the money came from or where it was going. It's absurd to feign moral outrage when it's clear that these politicians got exactly what they were after.

Now the price, both figurative and literal, must be paid. They would be wise to select an honest individual capable of restoring integrity to the organization. It's one thing to be financially broke. The BCDO only has one shot left to avoid moral bankruptcy.