Jerry English

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan is confident he'll keep his matching funds as he pursues the Republican nomination for Governor.

Without commentary on the merits of an issue that threatens the public financing of Steve Lonegan's campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, one thing is an absolute certainty: if the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission were to rule that he was ineligible for matching funds - and if the courts were to back up the decision - it could mean the end of the Lonegan campaign.  Lonegan's strategy is dependent upon public financing that gives him $2 for every $1 he raises.

The ELEC investigation is the result of an Associated Press story that suggests the former Bogota Mayor was obligated to disclose the details of his relationship with Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax lobbying group for whom he served as New Jersey Director.  State law requires candidates to disclose their connection to issue advocacy groups to avoid a conflict, such as avoiding spending limits that come with the public financing of gubernatorial elections.

The Lonegan campaign maintains that the candidate could not disclose AFP contributions, since he did not have access to their donor list.  And they say that AFP was created and organized more than seven years ago, before Lonegan was involved.

There is good news and bad news for Lonegan when it comes to ELEC.  It's helpful that the commission traditionally lacks extraordinary testicular fortitude. But it's potentially hurtful that the panel is hard to predict.  In 2001, they allowed former U.S. Rep. Bob Franks to simply take over the campaign treasury of Gov. Donald DiFrancesco when he replaced him on the ballot, and then allowed Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler to change his mind and accept public financing.

Today is Election Day in several hundred municipalities across the state that elect school board members – an appropriate time to remind Gov. Jon Corzine that a vacancy still exists on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.  Three months ago, Corzine’s staff indicated that the appointment of a Republican ELEC member would come “within weeks or even days.”  The seat has been vacant since Corzine named Judge Theodore Davis to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of Camden in December 2006. 

In 1958, Democrat Alexander Feinberg and former GOP Assemblyman William Cahill faced off in the old first district for the seat of Republican Charles Wolverton, who was retiring after 32 years in Congress. A Democratic year nationally, Cahill held on for a 1,829 vote victory, 50%-49%. Had Cahill lost his congressional race, he probably would not have won election as Governor in 1969.  (Feinberg, a Cherry Hill Democrat, became friends with the Senate candidate that year, Harrison Williams.  More than two decades later, when Williams was indicted in the Abscam scandal, Feinberg was a co-defendant.)

The other race was a 1953 Special Election for the seat of Republican Clifford Case, who had resigned during his ninth year in office to become the president of The Fund for the Republic. (Case returned to politics one year later to win the U.S. Senate seat of retiring freshman GOP Senator Robert Hendrickson). Most observers at the time expected the Republican, Plainfield Mayor George Hetfield, to easily win Case's congressional seat. His Democratic opponent was a 33-year-old lawyer and World War II veteran who had already lost races for State Assembly in 1951 and Plainfield City Councilman in 1952, Harrison Williams.

The first ELEC Executive Director says Gov. Jon Corzine's failure to appoint a GOP Commissioner is "inexcusable"
Republican National Committeeman David Norcross knows quite a bit about the Election Law Enforcement Commission. He was on staff of Gov. William T. Cahill when the commission was created, and became its first Executive Director.

And he’s not happy that the commission’s board, meant to be bi-partisan, is currently made up of two Democrats and one Republican. The seat has been vacant since Gov. Jon Corzine named Theodore Davis as Camden’s chief operating officer in December 2006.

“It’s inexcusable,” said Norcross about the fact that the commission has gone over a year without filling its Republican vacancy. “I understand exigencies of politics. Sometimes you can’t find an appointee, sometimes you can’t get the agreement you need, but this is preposterous.”

The vote by the Election Law Enforcement Commission to postpone a ruling allowing a candidate to use campaign funds for their legal defense in a criminal matter was along party lines: Democratic Commissioners Jerry English and Albert Burstein voted to postpone the issue, while Republican Commissioner Peter Tober voted no.

While state law requires ELEC to be equally divided among both political parties, Democrats have enjoyed a 2-1 majority since December 2006, when Governor Jon Corzine named one of the Republican Commissioners, retired Judge Theodore Davis to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Camden. 

Had the Republican seat been filled, it is possible that the motion to postpone the decision would have been tied at 2-2 – lacking the votes to pass.  That would have forced ELEC to act today.

State law requires the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission to be equally divided among both political parties, but in the months preceding the 2007 general election, Democrats have a majority.

Governor Jon Corzine appointed one of the two Republican ELEC Commissioners, retired Superior Court Judge Theodore Davis, to serve as the Chief Operating Officer of the City of Camden. Corzine has not filled the GOP vacancy, which leaves the Democrats with a 2-1 majority on the bi-partisan panel that decides potentially sensitive campaign finance matters – like whether Democratic Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein should receive $100,000 in Clean Elections relief money because a conservative group is running issue advocacy ads that mention her name.

In case you missed it: the Legislature actually wrote a Clean Elections law that provides relief money to a candidate who is “the subject of unfavorable campaign publicity.”  The relief package is up to $100,000 in public funds.

Suddenly, the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission finds itself in a fairly powerful position – deciding what constitutes “unfavorable publicity or advertisements.”  This is a fairly broad and subjective area.  Does it require more than a closed-door ELEC meeting without an appropriate investigation? A bad ruling could  negatively impact the future of the Clean Elections program.