Court to hear pay to play case next month

By Wally Edge | October 23rd, 2008 - 10:28am
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The New Jersey Supreme Court has tentatively scheduled oral arguments in the Appeal by Earle Asphalt Co., which is challenging New Jersey's pay to play laws on November.  The matter involves a contribution made to the Monmouth County Republican Committee by Walter Earle III, the owner of Earle Asphalt, which later barred his firm from winning state contracts.  Upon finding out that his contributuion (made at the request of former Co-Senate President John Bennett) would violate pay to play laws, Earle asked for his money back.  Still, the state invalidated the award of a state Department of Transportation contract -- on which Earle Asphalt was the lowest bidder.  New Jersey prohibits the award of public contracts of more than $17,500 to any business that has contributed more than $300 to certain candidates and party organizatons.

Earle claims that the law limiting his campaign contributions violates his right to free speech.  The queston the court is considering: "Did the political contribution of this Company’s president disqualify the Company from bidding on a State construction project under N.J.S.A. 19:44A-20.14; or, did the president’s request for a refund of the contribution entitle the Company to exemption under the safe-harbor provision of N.J.S.A. 19:44A-20.20?

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Actually ....

Submitted by thoroughlymoder... on October 23, 2008 - 10:34am.

while i'm a big fan of pay to play regulation, certainly there is an argument that the restriction should not apply to competitively bid contracts. If he is the low bidder, who cares who he donated money to? His bid was the lowest and the contract was awarded on that objective, competitive basis.

This is entirely different from no bid contracts that can be directed to fat cat donors without oversight or competition.

Millie

Submitted by VinCognito on October 23, 2008 - 11:29am.

Is 100% on - there should be disclosure of donations and in the case of competitive bid if they are the most qualified and lowest they should have every right to the contract - its the no bid work and big donations we need to stop.

competitive bidding

Submitted by Mr. Democrat on October 23, 2008 - 6:17pm.

Requiring that contracts are competitively bid doesn't mean that the lowest bidder gets the contract.

Municipalities and Counties have wide latitude to award the contract to a bidder other than the lowest, that's the issue. There might be a lower bid, but the crony still gets awarded the contract.

So the choices are either 1) reform the bidding laws so the lowest wins (not very smart), or 2) have a strict pay-to-play law.

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