“Exactly one month ago today, the Governor’s chief strategist and his friends announced the formation of a group called Reform Jersey Now.  Let’s not be confused by the name.  It sounds lofty and well meaning; but in reality it’s nothing more than a front group.”

It is nothing more than a shadow arm of the Republican Party and Christie campaign.  Supporters of this group don’t care about reform  - they care about supporting Governor Christie and the Republicans and their effort to do an end run around election laws. 

It is the height of hypocrisy that a man who made his name by prosecuting the corrupting confluence of money and politics would allow his entire political team to take part in this pay to play haven. 

One month ago today a spokesman for Reform New Jersey and one of Governor Christie’s chief strategists, said, “"We’re going to fully disclose, so people can make their own judgment on it.”  A few days later he said "There will be full transparency.”

No such transparency of this organization exists today.  And they have yet to fully commit to releasing any information about their donors or activity like any other political committee has to. 

They claim on their website and in their press releases that ‘Reform Jersey Now is a 501(c)(4) organization under the Internal Revenue Code and is not affiliated with any political group or committee.’  This proclamation is an insult to the press and to the people of New Jersey. 

You only need to dig a little to see the very close affiliations with Governor Christie and the Republican leadership in this state.  You’ve heard of ‘Six degrees of Separation’, in this case there are zero degrees of separation from Governor Christie, Minority Leaders Kean and DeCroce and this supposed ‘issue advocacy’ group. 

- Christie’s top political advisor is on the ‘advisory board’ 

- Their treasurer, a Governor’s appointee to the Turnpike Authority, is the campaign treasurer for Chris Christie, Senate Minority Leader Kean, and Assembly Minority Leader DeCroce amongst others.

 -The address and phone number listed on their website are the same as the top Republican fundraising firm in the state which works for the Republican State Committee, the Senate Republican Majority and the Assembly Republican Majority 

-The chief strategist for the Christie / Guadagno campaign is their spokesperson 

-Governor Christie was the only keynote speaker at the only event supporting Reform Jersey Now 

These are direct ties between the statewide Republican apparatus, and this shadow group which is nothing but a front for the Republican Party to raise unlimited, unregulated contributions from anyone it wants.

 In fact, the most important information on their website is the part that reads, “Reform Jersey Now may lawfully accept donations from any source – corporate or individual – in unlimited amounts.” 

This past Friday, when thousands of voters in New Jersey opened their mailboxes and found those attacks mailers, they saw for themselves the true purpose of Reform Jersey Now.   They are nothing more than an unregulated campaign arm of the Republican Party to advance their electoral agenda. 

 Aside from Speaker Oliver’s district, all of the legislative districts that received the mailing were what would be considered targeted districts in next year’s legislative races.  

I call on Reform Jersey Now to stop this charade and release its list of donors and do what they should have done in the first place, register as a political committee with oversight and reporting requirements to ELEC, like every other campaign and candidate in this state has to. 

Absent that, they must at the very least provide a reasonable timeline of when their donations will be revealed. 

Governor Christie, who during the campaign was a champion of transparency, should be the first one joining me.

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