Legislature reconsiders clean elections process
BY KAREN E. BOWES
Staff Writer

Fair and clean elections in New Jersey? Perhaps it’s not so far-fetched after all.

In the Garden State, where wheeling campaign donations and pay-to-play for municipal jobs are still part of the day-to-day political landscape, an updated version of FACE (Fair and Clean Election Project) aims to make the campaign process as free of corruption as possible.

The bill recently passed in the state Assembly and is now headed for consideration in the state Senate.

If enacted, FACE will target pay-to-play, which is the practice of candidates accepting campaign donations from businesses and then repaying those businesses with favors such as government contracts later on, once the candidate has been elected to office.

In theory, FACE would eliminate pay-to-play by not allowing businesses to donate to candidates at all. Instead, office-seekers would only be allowed to accept money from individuals living within their corresponding voting district.

For now, passage of the bill will ensure a second pilot run for three legislative districts somewhere in New Jersey.

Middletown resident and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth and Middlesex) took part in FACE’s original pilot program during the summer of 2005, but it was viewed as a failure by almost everyone who took part in the process. Handlin recently sat on the state committee that reworked the finer points of the program. After several months of tweaking and compromise, the bipartisan committee came up with a plan it hopes will work in the spring of 2007.

“We reviewed what went wrong in the original 2005 pilot program and tried to come up with a consensus bill that would fix some of the problems,” Handlin said. “And it needs to be said, the negotiations were difficult and the ultimate product is not what any one of us had originally advocated for.”

Handlin was disappointed, for example, with the exclusion of primary elections from the program.

“My biggest regret is that this bill does not include primaries,” Handlin said. “And as I’ve said on the floor, I believe in 2009 when every legislative candidate in the state will have the ability to run clean, primaries must be included. By that time we will certainly have enough experience. There will no longer be reasons or excuses for stopping short of including primaries.”

In 2005, candidates in District 6 (Camden County) and District 13 (Monmouth and Middlesex counties) had the opportunity to voluntarily take part in the FACE pilot program. In order to qualify for state funding, candidates had 10 weeks to collect 1,500 donations, 1,000 of which was needed in $5 amounts and 500 in $30 amounts. If they had been successful, the candidates would have been eligible for about $60,000 in campaign financing.

No one in District 13 came close to meeting this goal, including eventual election winners Handlin and her running mate Assemblyman Sam Thompson.

“My fear originally was that if the bill didn’t pass that New Jersey would have given up on fair an clean elections,” Handlin said.

In 2007, candidates in three districts that have not yet been picked will have between April and September to collect 800 donations of $10 each. If a candidate succeeds, he or she will be eligible for the state’s full funding of $100,000.

If a candidate is only able to get 400 donations, he will still qualify for half the funding amount. The same sliding scale will be used for those who collect 60 percent or 75 percent of the 800 donation goal.

The paperwork involved will be streamlined, Handlin said, and donors can use a check, credit card, cash or pay online.

“Symbolically, I had recommended that we force public officials who have been convicted of some kind of corruption to pay a fine on top of their punishment to fund the education aspect of the program,” Handlin said, but this suggestion was sacrificed during negotiations.

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) will lead the public education campaign, providing voters with a guide that explains how the FACE program works.

Finally, when a candidate qualifies, he or she will be listed on the ballot as a clean candidate, Handlin said.

Included within the bill is a provision that states if the 2007 pilot program succeeds it will be incorporated into all the voting districts in 2009.

Although participation will still be voluntary, Handlin believes those who decline the option will only do so “at their great political peril.”

“I can’t imagine anyone choosing to be dirty, or to be unclean, as opposed to being clean,” Handlin said.