RESTORE COMPETITIVE ELECTIONS: SHORTEN CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING SEASON

AT CLOSE OF 2009 PRIMARIES, INCUMBENTS HAVE RAISED $11MM, CHALLENGERS HAVE $350K

LIVINGSTON, NJ – In a statement today, twenty seventh District State Assembly candidate Barry Funt proposed measures to keep New Jersey’s electoral process open and competitive by encouraging regular citizens to challenge incumbents.

Camille Andrews’ Scandalous Spending

Inactive, non-responsive campaign spends
almost $43,000 with no public appearances

BARRINGTON – Dale Glading, candidate for U.S. Congress in New Jersey’s 1st District, criticized the placeholder campaign of Camille Andrews and her party boss, George Norcross III, for their big-spending ways.

“Camille Andrews has been invited on numerous occasions to appear with me in a public debate,” Glading said. “She has not had the courtesy to even respond to these invitations, much less appear, and now we find that she is raising nearly twice what the median household in our district earns in a year. This is the very model of what is wrong with politics today.”

Andrews reported raising just over $72,000 in her most recent FEC report, filed for July 15. She spent almost $43,000 of it on consultants and miscellaneous expenditures.

“To our knowledge, Andrews has made no public appearances, and we have not seen a single yard sign or piece of campaign literature bearing her name,” said Tim Saler, Glading’s campaign manager. “She has refused to appear before the voters, and yet somehow she has managed to spend almost as much on consultants – in three months – as the median household in our district earns in an entire year.”

“It’s just another example of how out of touch the machine politicians are,” Saler added. “Camille Andrews and Boss Norcross have spent more in three months on a fake candidate’s fake campaign than most people in the district make in a year. The people of our district are struggling to make ends meet; they can’t afford to write $2,300 checks to win Boss Norcross’ favor.”

“Being a part of the Norcross money machine is nice work, if you can get it,” Saler concluded. “But the rest of us need a Congressman too. That’s why Dale Glading is running, and that’s why he’s going to win.”

Governor Jon Corzine spent more than $118 million to win elections for Governor and the United States Senate, so BlueJersey.com has a valid point when they point out the hypocrisy of Corzine’s fundraising solicitation on behalf of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: “This election shouldn't be decided by who can run the most TV ads. It should be decided on the strength of each candidate's vision, experience, and qualifications. But instead, Hillary has been outspent by substantial margins in all the recent primary contests. Now it's time for us to do our part at this critical point in history to level the playing field and prove to voters in Texas and Ohio what I've known for a long time. There's no one more qualified to be President of the United States.”

Frank Lautenberg has a $4.3 million warchest

Today was the deadline for filing federal campaign returns, and the landscape of New Jersey politics hasn’t altered drastically.

In the Senate race, only Frank Lautenberg has filed with the Federal Election Commission. While the numbers have not yet appeared on the site, campaign manager Brendan Gill said that the 84-year-old Democrat has raised $931,700 during the last quarter of 2007, bringing his cash on hand total to about $4.32 million.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero and I don’t agree on a lot of things, but he’s right on the money in his criticism of the silly “pay-to-play” laws proposed by publicity seeking politicians as a “cure” for political corruption and high taxes in our state.