By Candice Martinez
Cash rules every vote around Jersey. Special interest committees poured unlimited cash amounts into swaying public opinion for the upcoming gubernatorial showdown between Gov. Chris Christie and state Sen. Barbara Buono.
Election time oils the 40-district machine. Candidates scramble for supporters. Attack ads ignite. Committees raise money and make expenditures. Citizens United campaign finance laws opened Pandora’s Box of unlimited expenditures – providing opportunity to state-level campaign committees.
Campaign financing glistens under a controversial spotlight in the 2013 New Jersey state election for governor, lieutenant governor, state Senate and state Assembly. N.J. state-level election committees have their first tastes of unlimited spending. Troves of data records show special interest groups, political committees and individual donors mass migrating to fund candidates.
New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission data show state Sen. Donald Norcross accumulated 502 donation records in the primaries.
“Dollars drive influence,” said Jerry Cantrell, president of Common Sense Institute for NJ. “I don’t see anything wrong with influencing a policy dialogue, if the playing field was level. But, it’s the level of influence bought with those dollars.”
In April 2013, the special interest group The Fund for Jobs, Growth and Security sued the ELEC until it agreed on a permanent injunction allowing the FJGS to have unrestricted fundraising. On July 17, ELEC loosened election laws to allow unlimited expenditures for short-term special interest groups lasting no more than one election cycle.
On May 24, FJGS filed an ELEC report showing $1.75 million in donations and $215,776 in spending, according to the June 2013 issue of ELEC-Tronic: An Election Law Enforcement Commission Newsletter.
As of June 2013, gubernatorial, legislative and independent committees raised a sum of $46,945,402 and spent $31,577,961, according to the June 2013 issue of ELEC-Tronic.
“The largest donation has the best influence,” Cantrell said.
The ELEC decision for committees to make unlimited expenditures occurred shortly after the Birdsall scandal – an engineering company that flew donations under the $300 donation radar. Any figure below $300 does not require declaration. Birdsall Services Group reimbursed its employees for writing small checks to politicians. The scheme stayed quiet for six years. N.J. election law’s arbitrary language provides a setting for intentional and unintentional illegal practices.
N.J. election law is like Citizens United in need of ADHD medication. Political action committees exist in various genres: political committees, continuing political committees, legislative leadership committees, independent committees, candidate committees and a handful of other XYZ committees.
An individual wishing to make a political contribution can donate to a committee supporting the candidate of his or her preference. However, if the individual plans to bid a contract to the state or a municipal government, a contribution could delay the bid for a year and a half. Independent donations from contractors fall under pay-to-play laws.
“If you screw up on this thing [pay-to-play], it’ll really screw up your business,” Rider University Rebovich Institute Director for NJ Politics Ben Dworkin said.
“In local races with pay-to-play laws, vendors are prohibited from giving to candidates who provide those vendors with contracts,” Common Cause Communications Director Heather Taylor said.
Pay-to-play laws prohibit contracts worth more than $17,500 to go to contractors who have recently made political contributions outside the “fair and open” process, an incentive program requesting contractors to publicly advertise donations and bids.
“Pay-to-play has created more transparency on the municipal level because it requires campaign money to be disclosed upon entering a bid,” NJ State League of Municipalities Staff Attorney Edward Purcell said.
Contracts go to the lowest bidder, which cancels room for favoritism. The lowest bidder law opens space for efficient contractors and a more competitive market pool, Purcell said.
Pay-to-play creates further election law complication on the municipal level because all of N.J.’s 565 municipalities possess the sovereignty to customize local pay-to-play laws.
“We need a statewide solution at the state level,” Taylor said, “because the state law prohibits private investors who want public contracts from donating to gubernatorial elections.”
State contractors are also prohibited from giving donations to legislative leadership committees or continuing political committees, she said.
Most contractors do not donate to campaigns with expectations of a contract, Dworkin said.
“It’s not that you’re guaranteed success if you contribute,” he said. “But, you don’t know the cost of not giving.”
There are two types of government contracts: construction and professional services. The construction contracts involve contractors competing, comparing prices and the lowest bidder wins. The professional services do not involve bidding. They are white collar jobs such as prosecutors, auditors and engineers, he said.
“The lowest bidder might not do a good job,” he said. “Those jobs are too important to give to someone who may be under qualified.”
Public services jobs play an undeniable role in everyday life; however, the rapid intertwining of government and special interest groups could create the potential for a favor system.
“The plethora of special interest groups donating campaign money has a negative impact on the free market concept,” Cantrell said. “Anytime you have special interests near elections, it impacts the flow of money.”
“I don’t agree to that,” Dworkin said. “Lots of corporations don’t get what they want and they still spend a lot.”
Despite the mass amounts of money fueling the Democrat campaign to replace Christie, many special interest groups may not receive the removal results they want.
“The Democrats aren’t spending to win, they’re spending to hold on to their seats,” said Convergent Strategies Managing Partner Mark J. Magyar. “If the Democrats lose a district, it’ll be 38.”
Magyar said legislative campaigns exploded in the 1990s. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs CEO, invested millions into legislative leaders PACS to fund campaigns. Since then, the Democrats have redistricted the congressional seats to keep the chess board in their favor.
As for this year’s state election, new political action committees positioned a coalition of special interest groups to fund the Democratic campaign.
“The power won’t change hands from the Democrats even if Christie wins,” he said. “There is heavy money on the Democratic side and their redistricting map was approved.”
Money pumps both the Republican and Democratic machines; however, cash does not guarantee a return on investment. Large amounts of money have the potential for favor if, and only if, the invested candidate wins. Perhaps, the answer is rather simple: Politics, like so much of American culture, could be subject to commercialization. After all, these unlimited expenditures buy large amounts of air time.
N.J. Campaign Finance Flaw
N.J. state elections have a reputation for candidates and donors taking advantage of blurry legal boundaries. N.J. Election Law Enforcement Commission’s public records website furthers the issue. Campaign finance transparency shrouds individual donors and political committees beneath a sea of invalid and unreliable data.
The 2013 N.J. state election loopholes may drastically increase because a change in N.J. campaign finance law allows national special interest groups to invest in N.J. state candidates, said Convergent Strategies Managing Partner Mark J. Magyar.
“Funds for Jobs, Growth and Security have poured money into this election,” he said.
In April 2013, FJGS, a Washington, D.C. special interest group, sued ELEC in federal court over the $7,200 fundraising cap. Citizens United invalidates the cap – prompting a permanent injunction for unrestricting fundraising. Transparency fails to keep up.
ELEC’s website shows contributors donating under multiple names: Micael Cesaro, Michael D. Cesaro; Michael J. Welding, Michael Welding; Joseph J. Hoffman, Joseph J. Hoffann; or Sean Scarborough, M Sean Scarboro.
Mistakes might be typos; however, they reduce the value within transparency. Looking for all donations under “Michael Welding” will not produce all of his records.
Investigative Journalism Fall 2013 