Trenton Mayor Tony Mack is still on the job following his arrest on corruption charges. His refusal to resign is not unusual.

Politicians in New Jersey who are charged with a crime can’t be forced out of office until they’re convicted. That can take up to a year or more after their arrest.

Monmouth University political analyst Patrick Murray says it’s almost become standard operating procedure for those officials to try to keep their elected office as long as they can.

 “We’ve seen that with a number of state legislators for example Shape James who was also Mayor of Newark, Wayne Bryant, and a number of others who have held onto their seats until it was well past time for them to go.”

Bob Ingle co-authored the book, ‘The Soprano State: New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption’. He says the insistence of those officials to stay in office causes some problems.

“The first one is that after someone has been indicted and arrested although they haven’t had a trial they can never be as effective. The other side of it is that people are just losing confidence in their government.”