Roberts: N.J. Clean Elections put on shelf by judge

[Guest]

September 3, 2008

Roberts: N.J. Clean Elections put on shelf by judge

By LISA G. RYAN
Gannett State Bureau

Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts said Tuesday that New Jersey won't provide public financing to any legislative candidates in the 2009 election cycle due to an unfavorable federal court ruling on a similar program in another part of the country.

A U.S. District Court judge in Arizona ruled late Friday that a key part of Arizona's Clean Elections law was unconstitutional.

The judge determined a provision that gives participating candidates extra funds if candidates not in the system or outsiders outspend them was invalid.

Because New Jersey's Clean Elections contains similar provisions, the Arizona ruling effectively kills the program in this state for the time being, Roberts said.

"In terms of enacting legislation to continue New Jersey's Clean Elections pilot program in 2009, the federal courts have imposed obstacles that are insurmountable given the time frame," Roberts, D-Camden, said in a prepared statement. "Instead of rushing to find stop-gap solutions, Clean Elections simply needs a time-out."

Roberts said putting the program on hiatus next year will give Congress and the courts more time to sort out issues that have been raised and the ability to give states clear guidelines to follow.

"It is disappointing that an activist court half a continent away has thrown such a huge obstacle in the way of a good government ethics reform that was making real headway in changing politics in New Jersey for the better," Roberts said.

New Jersey has experimented with Clean Elections for the last two legislative cycles.

The proposal for 2009 would have expanded the program to a maximum of eight districts and include primaries for the first time.

Candidates would have been able to receive up to $150,000 in public funds by agreeing to raise nominal contributions from constituents instead of traditional fundraising from special interests.

The program purports to clean New Jersey government of real or perceived corruption.

Sen. Bill Baroni Jr., R-Mercer, said in St. Paul, Minn., where he is attending the Republican National Convention, that he hadn't seen the court ruling or Roberts' statement.

"I believe we need to do Clean Elections constitutionally," Baroni said. "This is a significant step back, but now we need to work on banning pay-to-play from top to bottom."

Gannett New Jersey staff writer Michael Rispoli contributed to this report. Reach Lisa G. Ryan at lgryan@gannett.com

[Guest]

Roberts is really leading the charge to destroy NJ. He leads the COAH change and now because of Arizona uses it to stop the clean election process. Thus he's able to continue with the system as usual. No one has challenged NJ or even made statements to that effect. Yet, he jumped at the chance to use Arizona as his means to do away with clean elections. Amazingly he postpones it until after the 2009 elections. I am sure though that this never crossed his mind.