A New Jersey law prohibiting candidates for elective public office from accepting political contributions on public property has been expanded.

Senate Bill 3166, which has been signed into law and is effective immediately, amends state law to prevent the solicitation or contribution of political donations to candidates and officeholders on various public properties.

The prohibited properties include any property owned by any county, municipality, board of education of a school district, fire district, authority, or other state or local entity, district or instrumentality.

The new law also grants jurisdiction to the Election Law Enforcement Commission to enforce this rule.

On Monday a bill passed the New Jersey Senate that would prohibit political fundraising by any candidate on any public property in the state.

The legislation has gone to the Assembly and if it is passed, it would have to be signed by Governor Chris Christie.

You can find the story in the article “N.J. Senate passes bill banning political fundraising on all public property” by Christopher Baxter in the Star-Ledger.

The Fair Lawn, New Jersey Borough Council passed an amendment to close a loophole in the borough’s pay-to-play ordinance.

The amendment, to receive a final vote in December, removes the “fair and open bidding process” exception to the pay-to-play rule. The exception allows vendors to make political contributions over $300 without being barred from borough contracts.

An additional modification to the ordinance would include limiting political donations to election cycles rather than calendar years.

Map of Bergen County, New Jersey by Arkyan on Wikipedia.

New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno signed into law a bill moving the state’s presidential primary from February to June.

Assembly Bill 3777 eliminates separate presidential primary elections and provides for delegates and alternates to political party national conventions to be elected at regular June primary elections.

Lt. Governor Guadagno assumed the executive role of Governor Chris Christie while he was out of the state.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie renewed calls on the Legislature to pass ethics reform. In a press release, the governor stated, “New Jersey’s ethics laws remain a patchwork of ineffective half measures and loopholes that fail to apply a uniform standard of rules of conduct for all levels of government in our state.”

Highlighting a report issued last week by the State Comptroller which emphasized the failure of the state’s pay-to-play laws, the governor reiterated the need for the changes in his proposals, which include imposing a uniform standard for awarding contracts at all levels and branches of government in New Jersey. His proposals would also end ‘wheeling,’ a practice of transferring political donations to circumvent campaign financing laws.

Governor Christie has pushed pay-to-play reform in New Jersey by linking financial Transitional Aid to municipalities with the requirement the municipalities adopt local pay-to-play ordinances.

A post about the State Comptroller report can be found here.

Today the New Jersey State Comptroller A. Matthew Boxer and the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) Executive Director Jeff Brindle called for a simpler pay-to-play system, tighter contracting rules, and more complete disclosure of contractor contributions.

Comptroller Boxer issued a report finding the state’s pay-to-play laws contain “a series of fatal flaws [that] have essentially rendered New Jersey’s Pay-to-Play law meaningless in the effort to prevent local governments from steering contracts to politically favored vendors.” Director Brindle stated, “Unfortunately, New Jersey’s political history is littered with examples of private contractors securing lucrative public contracts through targeted contributions.”

The comptroller’s report suggests several changes, such as eliminating the fair-and-open exception which has different regulatory systems at the state and local levels, strengthening fair-and-open guidelines to require more competitive contracting, and reforming New Jersey’s contract laws to allow a more competitive vendor-selection process.

Drawing on earlier recommendations from ELEC, Director Brindle also made calls for changes, including for one state pay-to-play law to apply “across the board” for all jurisdictions, emphasizing “the current maze of local and state laws is terribly confusing.” Additionally, ELEC proposes that any public contractor receiving a contract over $17,500 file an annual report with the agency, listing the contractor’s contributions and public contracts. The current disclosure threshold is $50,000. Director Brindle also stated the contribution limits for contractors should be raised to help address fundraising concerns and not discourage participation in the political process.

“Combined with competitive bidding reform as suggested by the Comptroller, together these changes would, I believe, constitute the strongest pay-to-play law in the nation,” Director Brindle said.

Comptroller Boxer’s press release is here. Director Brindle’s press release is here.

Federal:

Firm Gives $1 Million to Pro-Romney Group, Then Dissolves

K Street Eyes Super Committee

Lobbying for Lobbyists on Capitol Hill

From the States and Municipalities:

California

California Poised to OK Political Donations via Text

Connecticut

Watchdog Panel Gives Malloy Three Choices for New Executive Director

Delaware

Weak Rules Make for Powerful Lobbyists

Hawaii

Ethics Chief Draws Ire for Stance on Task-Force Members Who Lobby

Illinois

Are State Worker Punishments Fitting the Crimes?

Michigan

Dispensary Offered Free Marijuana for Signing Up to Vote

New Jersey

N.J. Freeholder Resigns after Nude Photos Appear On-line

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Lobbyists Are Paying Attention to Freshman Lawmakers

Wisconsin

Court Tosses Wisconsin Limit on PAC Donations

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Elizabeth, New Jersey

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Lakewood, Colorado

Mayor Corey A. Booker has signed a new pay-to-play ordinance into law, specifically aimed at city redevelopers. The new ordinance bars redevelopers from contracting with the city if a contribution, or pledge of a contribution, over $300 has been made one year prior to the contract.

Redeveloper is defined to mean any person or entity entering into a contract with the city, or with another redeveloper, for the rehabilitation of any area in the city. The definition includes those with a 10-percent or greater ownership in the entity, partners, officers, subsidiaries, and spouses and adult children living at home.

Any group of individuals from the contracting entity cannot contribute in the aggregate in excess of $3,000. Contribution and disclosure requirements will also be required from lobbyists, professionals, and consultants working for a redeveloper if his or her work relates to the subject contract. A redeveloper who violates the ordinance is barred from future redevelopment agreements for four calendar years.

The ordinance takes effect June 2nd.

Photo of Newark at night by Jamaalcobbs at en.wikipedia.

The City of Paterson has implemented a new pay-to-play ordinance which enhances the rules concerning contribution limits for entities doing business with the city. Ordinance 11-006 includes an absolute ban on contributions between the time of first communication regarding a specific agreement and the termination of negotiations, the rejection of a proposal, or the completion of a contract. The ordinance also outlines specific contribution limits, in the 12 months prior to a contract, to mayoral and governing body candidates and their committees, joint candidate committees, Passiac County political committees, and PACs.

In order to receive financial aid from the state, the City of Paterson’s passage of the legislation was required by an earlier agreement with the New Jersey Transitional Aid to Localities program, the state’s financial aid program for local municipalities and counties.

Map of Paterson in southern Passaic County, New Jersey by JimIrwin on Wikipedia.

Eric Brown’s Political Activity Law blog pointed me in the direction of a Philadelphia Inquirer-Daily News article that said lobbyist spending in New Jersey has increased 14% since Gov. Chris Christie took office. The grand total of spending was $66 million.

For the full story, read today’s article: “Christie’s tenure brings jump in lobbying” by Cynthia Burton.

Map of New Jersey by JimIrwin on Wikipedia.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer has asked the city council to end ‘wheeling’ in the city’s elections. Wheeling is a term used to describe the channeling of money through different political committees to avoid contribution limits.

The mayor also wants an ordinance to limit the amount of contributions an outside PAC may donate to a candidate in a city election and stressed how the former mayor Cammarano’s campaign received more than $100,000 in the last 11 days of his campaign from political committees not from Hoboken.

City councilman Ravinder Bhalla is a sponsor of the proposed legislation.

As reported in today’s pressofatlanticcity.com, the Atlantic City City Council unanimously passed a pay-to-play ordinance mandated by an agreement with the state’s Department of Community Affairs. The law would prohibit granting contracts to individuals and businesses who contributed to a campaign or political action committee for the election of a council member.

The Department of Community Affairs gives financial assistance to local municipalities in exchange for measures such as instituting pay-to-play laws and giving the Department power to review and approve other city business, such as hiring and promoting. The only discussion about the ordinance was from Councilman Moisse Delgado, who asked, “Y’all ready for this?”

Ronald DeFilippis, Chairman of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, revealed the upcoming plans for the commission, including the intention to have electronic filing available for quarterly and annual lobbyist reports by 2012. Writing in the latest ELEC-Tronic Newsletter, the monthly informational bulletin from the commission, the chairman noted the “staff is working to create the hardware and software components” to implement the new filing system.

The commission also intends to enhance its candidate and treasurer training, introducing instructional videos and making training available online, and to simplify the language in their lobbying and campaign finance law compliance manuals.