Candidates qualify for public funding

Four of six District 14 candidates qualify as clean-elections candidates

By: Paul Koepp
   Four of the six candidates in the District 14 legislative races have received 800 clean-elections contributions of $10, qualifying each candidate for $534,375 in public funding.
   Two other candidates have qualified for partial funding under the program, which is being tried on a pilot basis in three legislative districts this year. In exchange for the public financing, the candidates have agreed not to take private contributions and to limit spending to the amount provided by the state.
   However, the prohibition did not apply to the primary election campaign, during which the six candidates raised a total of $456,196 and spent $345,401, according to filings with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. The Republican slate of Assemblyman Bill Baroni, who is running for the state Senate seat, and Assembly candidates Adam Bushman, of Jamesburg, and Hamilton Councilman Tom Goodwin, announced Monday that they have all reached 800 contributions of $10 each.
   Democratic Senate candidate Seema Singh, the former state ratepayer advocate from South Brunswick, said Tuesday she has garnered the 800 contributions to qualify for full funding as well.
   According to ELEC reports filed last week, Wayne DeAngelo, the Democratic Assembly candidate from Hamilton, had 402 qualifying contributions, while his running mate, incumbent Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, of Plainsboro, had 603. Candidates who reach 400 contributions qualify for $46,000 in public funding and $1,200.94 for each additional contribution up to 800.
   As for primary fundraising, which was outside the clean-election program, Ms. Greenstein and Ms. Singh took in more than twice the closest challenger, Mr. DeAngelo, and more than three times the figure raised by Mr. Baroni.
   Ms. Greenstein, the incumbent assemblywoman, took in $168,602 and spent $146,784, while Ms. Singh took in $168,511 and spent $137,828, including the use of automated phone calls and the distribution of fliers, according to ELEC filings. Mr. DeAngelo raised $77,338 and spent $20,892, while Mr. Baroni, who currently serves in the Assembly, raised $41,745 and spent $39,897 during the primary campaign.
   Mr. Bushman and Mr. Goodwin did not file campaign finance reports because they planned to spend less than $3,500 during the primary, according to a May 7 ELEC filing.
   The Republican candidates have criticized Ms. Singh for taking money from executives of utility companies with whom she dealt in her role as ratepayer advocate. Contributions included $2,600 from Lawrence Downes, of West Windsor, the CEO of New Jersey Natural Gas, and $500 from John McMahon, of Bronxville, N.Y., the CEO of Rockland Electric Company.
   "I did nothing illegal and nothing unethical," Ms. Singh said, adding that the executives donated to her legally as residents of the 14th District, which includes South Brunswick, Monroe, Jamesburg, and Cranbury. "As ratepayer advocate, I stood by consumers against the utility companies."
   She said she wants to "move past the innuendo" and focus on a door-to-door, grassroots campaign on issues like property taxes and the widening of Route 1. Ms. Singh said she would look for the most efficient pay to spend her public funds.
   "The beauty of clean elections is that it levels the playing field," she said.
   Mr. Baroni said that donations like the ones she received from utility executives are the reason why the clean elections program was created.
   While supportive of the program — he sponsored the legislation along with Ms Greenstein creating this year’s pilot and served with Ms. Greenstein on the commission that studied the 2005 pilot — he believes the funding figure is too high. He said $534,375 for each qualifying candidate was "an extraordinary amount of money." He said the money should be spent in the same clean way that it was raised, with an emphasis on grassroots campaigning.
   "We’re an experimental district, so we want no corporations and no (political action committees) involved," he said.
   Mr. Baroni, Mr. Bushman and Mr. Goodwin have all signed a League of Women Voters pledge promising to run clean campaigns.
   The Democratic candidates will hold a reception on Saturday at from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 79 N. Main St. in Cranbury.