Federal court effectively kills NJ clean elections
By EditorResponding to a U.S. Appeals Court ruling that Arizona's "rescue money" provision in their clean elections law is unconstitutional, Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) said on Monday that New Jersey's clean election law is effectively dead. At least for now.
"In terms of enacting legislation to continue New Jersey's Clean Elections pilot program in 2009, the federal courts have imposed obstacles that are insurmountable given the time frame," said Roberts in a statement.
"Instead of rushing to find stop-gap solutions, Clean Elections simply needs a time-out."
The "rescue money" provision is a mechanism intended to allow clean elections candidates to respond to attacks from independent groups.
"Putting the program on hiatus next year will give Congress and the courts more time to sort out the many issues that have been raised and the ability to give states clear guidelines to follow," continued Roberts. "It is disappointing that an activist court half a continent away has thrown such a huge obstacle in the way of a good government ethics reform that was making real headway in changing politics in New Jersey for the better."Federal court effectively kills NJ clean elections
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It's about time
This was plainly the most half-brained and unconstitutional scheme out there - no surprise Baroni and Roberts were so in favor of it.
You should see the polling on this
New Jersey voters, to say the least, are not thrilled with the idea of paying for incumbent legislators' reelection campaigns. This is a great issue for anyone running against someone who voted for this in the past.
And in a Republican Primary? It's off the scale!
Good to hear
It's good to hear that this incumbent's re-election welfare system has been stopped. News Jersey's "Clean Election" plan was nothing but yet another sham being foisted upon the voters of this State.