Committing to clean elections

By: Hank Kalet
Committing to clean elections
    Voters in Cranbury, Jamesburg and Monroe may have an opportunity to participate in an experiment that could change the way elections are run in New Jersey.
    The state Legislature is considering the 14th District as one of three districts to continue a pilot clean elections program in which public money would be used to pay for the campaigns of candidates who collect enough qualifying contributions.
    And candidates in the district — which includes Cranbury, Jamesburg and Monroe — are ready to make it work. Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, a Democrat, has sent a letter to Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts on behalf of her running mates — Senate candidate Seema Singh of South Brunswick and Assembly candidate Wayne DeAngelo of Hamilton — supporting the choice of the district.
    On the Republican side, Assemblyman Bill Baroni, who is running for the state Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Peter Inverso, has told Republican leaders he wants the pilot to be continued in the 14th, as well, though right now they are pushing the 12th.
    "This is our chance to do more than just write law, but to prove that reform can work," Mr. Baroni said Monday. Mr. Baroni was a co-sponsor of the original legislation, written by Ms. Greenstein, that created the 2005 pilot and both were the primary sponsors of the 2007 bill. "If we can do this, then we can point to this in January 2008 and say we succeeded and no one can ever say it failed again."
    The pilot was tried during the 2005 election cycle, but it was far from successful. Just two candidates of eight in the two districts where it was tried qualified for public funding, due mostly to an absurdly high qualifying threshold — candidates had to collect 1,000 donations of $5 and another 500 at $30 apiece.
    Critics of the program viewed the 2005 results as proof that public financing couldn’t work. But the commission assigned to study the program — which included Ms. Greenstein and Mr. Baroni — viewed the results differently. The commission believed the program not only could work, but that public financing could change the dynamic in the state, opening the ballot to new candidates and breaking the perceived connection between campaign contributions and access to elected officials.
    The new law — admittedly a waýPage=010 Column=001 OK,0031.01þ
tered-down version of the Clean Elections Commission’s recommendations — expanded the program to three legislative districts and required 800 $10 contributions to qualify.
    Two of the districts, according to the legislation, will be uncompetitive, single-party districts chosen by their party’s legislative leaders (the deadline was scheduled for Wednesday). The third is to be a split district.
    Republican legislative leaders are pushing for the 12th District — which covers parts of Mercer and Monmouth counties and is represented by Democratic state Sen. Ellen Karcher, and Democratic Assemblyman Michael Panter and Republican Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (who is running against Sen. Karcher this year). Sen. Karcher and Mr. Panter were co-sponsors of this year’s clean elections bill.
    Democrats have selected the 14th — which includes Cranbury, Jamesburg, Monroe and South Brunswick, along with Plainsboro, West Windsor and Hamilton. An alternative selection committee — headed by former Gov. Jim Florio, a Demcorat — will meet Monday.
    Both Mr. Baroni and Ms. Greenstein say they want the chance to prove the program can succeed.
    "I think that what we are trying to do here is take something that is still in the experimental stage and make it work," Ms. Greenstein said Tuesday. "We were able to iron out some of the kinks, identify what some of the problems were with the original legislation. We improved it and we are going to try it again. My goal is to try and make it work here."
    Mr. Baroni agreed.
    "I’ve told our campaign folks to prepare to make the investment — nothing is more important to me than making it succeed," he said. "One of criticisms is that it won’t work, that it can’t work. But I’m prepared to go door-to-door to prove them wrong."
    And the stakes are pretty high. As I said, the critics were not impressed with the 2005 showing and many were looking for reasons not to extend the program. As it is, the sauýPage=010 Column=002 OK,0028.08þ
sage machine that is the legislative process ground down the rather expansive proposal offered by the commission, reducing the number of proposed districts from six to three and limiting the program to the general election.
    But the program does survive — for now. If there is any chance that it can be extended to the rest of the state, it is important that the 2007 version be a success.
    "If it fails again, the program may go away," Mr. Baroni said.
    The 14th District offers an interesting opportunity, both say. There are open Senate and Assembly seats — Ms. Greenstein is the only incumbent running for re-election, with Mr. Baroni running for Senate.
    It is ethnically and economically diverse, its legislative delegation is split and voters in five of its seven towns have a history of crossing party lines. (Voters in South Brunswick, which has a 5-0 Democratic majority on the Township Council, have backed Mr. Baroni in his last two races and Sen. Inverso every year since 1991).
    And it is the district with the highest per candidate campaign cost in the state — $534,366.98 per campaign over the last three cycles, nearly $90,000 more than any other district, according to Ms. Greenstein.
    "Obviously, this amount is reflective of the fact that so many 14th District races in the past been highly competitive," she wrote in her letter to Speaker Roberts. "The goal of Clean Elections is to give voters confidence that the money being spent to disseminate a clear message and earn their vote is free of the conflict caused by special interest contributions. I can think of no better place to start than in the district that has attracted more campaign contributions this decade than any other."
    Neither can I.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and The Cranbury Press. His e-mail is [email protected] and his blog, Channel Surfing, can be found at www.kaletblog.com.

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