Originally appeared in the Bergen Record on Tuesday, April 3, 2001
By RALPH SIEGEL
The Associated Press

TRENTON -- Acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco lists among his more affluent real-estate tenants President Bush, or at least the president's postmaster general, Bill Henderson.

Donald and Diane DiFrancesco own 219 E. Main St. in Chatham, a commercial building that houses a restaurant and for the past 18 months the borough's downtown satellite office for the U.S. Postal Service.

The Postal Service signed a 10-year lease in 1999 agreeing to pay $54,715 a year through 2004, when it goes up to $61,500.

DiFrancesco's office Monday released the acting governor's financial disclosure statement listing the first couple's five properties, 21 types of stock and mutual funds, and 22 stocks sold last year. Their tax return released two weeks ago showed they sold stock worth $247,063 last year and gained $30,202 in profit on those sales.

The DiFrancescos' tax return for 2000 reported income of $109,029 from the Chatham building, although it is not known what share of it was their postal income and what the DiFrancescos were able to deduct from it in maintenance or repair costs.

The Chatham address has not always been good fortune for DiFrancesco's finances and lately for his political aspirations as he seeks a full four-year term. After buying the retail building with his brother, Paul, with $1 million in bank loans, DiFrancesco faced foreclosure in 1993 and had to secure $575,000 in private loans from three friends and an uncle to keep the bank from taking it away.

It was disclosed in February that one of those lenders, Anthony Sartor, is a principal in an engineering firm that has received some $25 million in state contracts, including a $3 million share of the controversial auto inspections contract.

The publicity also increased media scrutiny of DiFrancesco's other dealings with his brother that have linked the acting governor to broken real-estate deals and defaulted loans in Warren Township and Scotch Plains.

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