Media Release
| For Immediate Release | Contact | Phone |
| June 12, 2008 | Marilyn Carpinteyro | 732-246-4772 |
NJ's Largest Citizen Watchdog Testifies on New State Clean Elections Proposal
Statement of Marilyn Carpinteyro, NJCA Legislative/Political Director on A100: The 2009 New Jersey Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project Act
Trenton, NJ — As the state's leading proponent of full public campaign financing in New Jersey, New Jersey Citizen Action sees A100 as a step in the right direction and continues New Jersey's serious work in developing a clean elections program that best meets the needs of our state. While still not perfect, A100 corrects several of the most significant problems of the 2005 and 2007 programs. The 2009 NJ Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project Act will, for the first time, provide full public campaign financing for primary candidates, provide equal funding for third party candidates and expands the program from three to eight legislative districts, nearly tripling last years' pilot.
We commend the efforts of the legislative ad hoc committee for their work in preparing the legislation and Assemblyman Greenwald and Assembly Speaker Roberts for their continued leadership in this most important area of campaign finance reform. While the 2009 Clean Elections Act makes great progress, it is our view that the proposed requirement that only slates of candidates can qualify for public financing is bad policy and counter to the underlying goal of Clean Elections to level campaign playing fields and encourage more participation in the electoral process. Slating is not required by any other state that has a clean election's program and could create a chilling effect on candidates. Given NJ's political landscape, and particularly when considering primary elections, it is an unfair burden to require challengers to have running mates in order to qualify for public financing. This is particularly true for 3rd party candidates who often field only one candidate because they don't have the resources (infrastructure) to sustain two.
We look forward to working with advocates, policy makers and voters to improve and pass this bill and get it to the Governor's desk in time for next year's Assembly primary races. Even more so, we very much look forward to working with the lucky voters in the 8 selected districts in 2009 that will have the opportunity to change the way we do politics in New Jersey.
###
New Jersey Citizen Action is the state's largest citizen watchdog coalition with 60,000 family members across the state and more than 110 affiliated labor, tenant, faith based senior and community organizations. NJCA is also a founding member of the New Jersey Coalition for Clean Elections, a statewide coalition of 20 diverse organizations dedicated to reducing the corrupting influence of money in politics by establishing a permanent, state-wide system of full public campaign financing.