By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Cranbury Township Committee is being urged to press state lawmakers to pass campaign finance reform requiring greater transparency from independent groups that try to influence elections.
Representatives of the New Jersey chapter of Represent.Us, a national organization, are seeking support for a package of bills stalled in the state Legislature, said a leader of the group.
Among other things, the measures would require nonprofit tax-exempt groups that try to influence political contests to register with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission and report donations of more than $300. Lawmakers have also proposed a uniform “pay to play” law, but time is running out for votes. If the measures do not get acted upon, before the new Legislature takes office in January, they would have to be reintroduced.
“At this particular moment, we are looking for the Cranbury (Township) Committee to support the bills in the New Jersey Legislature,” said David Goodman, a Princeton resident who is a co-leader of the New Jersey chapter. Last year, the Princeton Council passed a resolution to that effect.
A resolution for Cranbury officials to vote on is expected to come before the governing body at its next meeting, Nov. 27. Local officials normally steer away from weighing in on issues outside of town, although they recently opposed a federal tax reform proposal because it would end the deduction for state and local taxes.
“But there’s no denying that issues that happen in Trenton, issues that happen in Washington have a significant impact on our quality of life here,” Deputy Mayor Susan Goetz said at the Nov. 13 Township Committee meeting.
She said that in Cranbury, local elections are close races where “every vote counts” and where campaign donations come from “neighbors and friends.”
“And votes are earned by walking around knocking on doors and shaking hands and drinking lots of coffee,” she said.
New Jersey is no stranger to corrupt politics, with a slew of high-profile state and local officials having been charged in corruption cases in recent years. Most notably, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, saw his federal bribery case end last week in a mistrial when there was a hung jury.
