EDITORIAL
By:
"Pay to play" has become the latest catchphrase in the lexicon of campaign finance reform. It describes the relationship that often exists between those who give to candidates for public office in the form of campaign contributions and those who get from public officials in the form of government contracts and jobs.
This is nothing new, of course. Many a small-town law firm and engineering company has contributed to local mayoral and council candidates and wound up being the township attorney or the city engineer. Many a well-connected consultant has contributed to gubernatorial and legislative candidates and wound up with a lucrative contract to overhaul the motor-vehicle inspection system or initiate the EZ-Pass program. Many a multinational conglomerate has given generously to congressional and presidential candidates and wound up supplying the military with everything from titanium warheads to toilet seats.
Efforts to curb the influence of campaign contributions, which began in earnest following the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, have generally focused on limiting the size of these contributions to candidates and political parties from any single person or entity. (Banning them altogether, the courts have ruled, would be a form of denying political expression, a right that’s protected by the First Amendment.) State and federal laws also require disclosure of the sources and amounts of contributions, which tends to have a chilling effect on candidates and contributors who, at least publicly, would rather not be associated with one another. And in elections that are subsidized by public financing the presidential and New Jersey gubernatorial races are two examples candidates who accept public funds agree to a ceiling on campaign expenditures, which further limits the influence of any individual contribution.
But "pay to play" has survived these reforms, in part because there are enough loopholes in the law to drive a convertible full of cash through without fear of a single dollar bill blowing away. One of the byproducts of campaign finance reform has been a proliferation of political action committees to spread money around: party PACs, gubernatorial PACs, legislative leadership PACs, interest group PACs, industry PACs. Those who make the maximum allowable contributions to these PACs, as well as to candidates, count on the recipients calculating (and appreciating) their generosity in the aggregate, and rewarding them accordingly after each election.
Gov. James E. McGreevey pulled a fast one in his annual message a couple of weeks ago, calling for an end to "pay to play" and, in the process, killing any chance that it might happen anytime soon. Instead of supporting a measure, already approved by the Senate and awaiting action in the Assembly, that would ban the practice at the state level, the governor said he would veto any reform that did not extend to county and municipal governments as well opening up a can of worms that hundreds of mayors, council members and freeholders find decidedly unappetizing.
Meanwhile, West Windsor is pressing ahead as Hamilton, Hopewell Township and other municipalities have done with its own ban on "pay to play," introducing an ordinance that would prohibit the township from hiring or contracting with anyone who has made a contribution to a mayoral or council campaign. This is a worthy endeavor, but a very delicate one as well: Should it apply only to entities like law firms and engineering companies or to individuals like auditors and accountants? If so, how does it not violate their First Amendment rights? Should it apply to current municipal employees as well as those seeking employment? If so, how does it not violate their First Amendment rights? Should it apply only to those who contribute to winning candidates or those who contribute to any candidates? Should it apply only to those who contributed in the most recent campaign or in any campaign?
These and many more questions need to be answered before a well-intentioned reform leads to a host of unintended consequences.

