BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts’s decision to kill the Clean Elections Program wasn’t met with regret by Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr.

Although Kean voted for the previous incarnations of the pilot program, he said that, even if it’s retooled for 2011, he’s not sure whether he’ll support it again.

"I never agreed that just because there was a Clean Elections program last year there had to be one this year. But clearly we have to ensure that the program is constitutional.”

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IN RESPONSE TO CLEAN ELECTIONS COURT DECISION, WEINBERG SAYS: ‘NJ SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON PAY-TO-PLAY AND ETHICS REFORM’

Teaneck – In response to today’s announcement regarding the U.S. Appeals Court’s decision ruling that the ‘rescue money’ in the Clean Elections law is unconstitutional, State Senator Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) announced that she agrees with Speaker Joe Roberts in the suspension of all future Clean Elections pilot programs in New Jersey until the courts have made their final rulings on this issue.

“There is much to do in New Jersey in the way of reforming our pay-to-play laws,” said Weinberg. “I agree with Speaker Roberts. Our state should concentrate on improving the integrity of our government by passing strict pay-to-play legislation, while we await the court decision on Clean Elections funding.”

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ROBERTS: FEDERAL COURT KILLS CLEAN ELECTIONS FOR 2009

(TRENTON) -- Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, Jr. today said that a federal court ruling that found a key part of Arizona's "clean elections" law unconstitutional has killed the chances for New Jersey to continue the program for the 2009 legislative election cycle.

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DENVER -- Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (D-Camden) said that members of the unofficial legislative committee figuring out how to salvage the Clean Elections program have met at least once and are “rolling up their sleeves to do everything they can to keep the program.”

Clean Elections faces a potential constitutional hurdle and the fierce opposition of conservatives, who went looking for what they called a “secret” committee meeting. Conservative activist Steve Lonegan’s Americans for Prosperity even made a video documenting their search for the committee’s meeting.

Although Roberts convened the committee, he doesn’t know where they met either (he’s not actually a member).

“It might have been somewhere in the statehouse.”

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Americans for Prosperity has engaged an investigative reporter to uncover the time and whereabouts of a secret meeting of Speaker Joe Roberts’ “Clean Elections” committee. 

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Trenton – Americans for Prosperity, New Jersey's largest and fastest growing taxpayer advocacy organization, filed an Open Public Records Act request seeking detailed information to support claims made by the office of Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Jr., about how a program to use taxpayers’ money to fund political campaigns was created.

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McHOSE'S IDIOTIC ATTEMPT TO SCORE SPECIAL INTEREST POINTS FALLS FLAT

Latest Attempt to Discredit Good Government Reforms Ensnared by Own Inaccuracies

(TRENTON) - In what can only be described as an hour-long endorsement of shoddy techniques, incomplete and inaccurate analyses, and glaring half-truths, Assembly Minority Deputy Conference Leader Alison Littell McHose (R-Sussex) today firmly positioned herself as a champion of the absurd and an obstructionist to good government reform during a press conference in opposition to New Jersey's Clean Elections program.

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ASSEMBLY PANEL CLEARS MEASURE REAUTHORIZING
CLEAN ELECTIONS FOR 2009 LEGISLATIVE CYCLE
Measure Would Expand Public-Financing Initiative to Primary Elections,
Clamp Down on Overall Costs
    
(TRENTON) - Bipartisan legislation Assemblyman Louis Greenwald sponsored to reauthorize and expand the state's landmark Clean Elections pilot program for the 2009 legislative elections was released today by an Assembly committee.

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Last fall, the state conducted its second “Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project” which included state Senate and Assembly races in legislative districts 14, 24, and 37. The first pilot project took place in 2005 and included assembly races in two legislative districts –the 6th and 13th. This month, the legislature will consider a bill expanding this taxpayer subsidized political campaign scam far beyond its current level, which cost taxpayers over $4 Million in 2007 -- including $625,000 for one candidate alone.

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GREENSTEIN AND DEANGELO STATEMENTS ON
CLEAN ELECTIONS REPORT

(TRENTON) - Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo issued the following statements today in response to the 2007 Fair and Clean Elections Report issued by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission: Read More >