Bill Prompted by Sharpe James Donation to Council Candidate
Republican Senate Leader Tom Kean and Senator Bill Baroni will introduce legislation that would ban elected officials convicted of felonies from using their campaign accounts to make political donations. Instead, any money in the accounts would be dispersed to the chronically underfunded New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, allowing it to fully finance the monitoring of elections and campaign donations.
The two senators learned this week that Sharpe James, former mayor of Newark and once a state senator, legally gave $5,000 to a Newark city council candidate. James is serving a 27-month term in federal prison after conviction on corruption charges.
“Officials convicted of corruption in office have lost their right to influence the political process,” Senate Republican Leader Kean said. “We must close any loophole that allows felons to make political donations from their prison cells.”
“We can make it harder for felons to corrupt our government, and we can help support a vital stage agency that is chronically starved of resources,” Senator Baroni said. “The Election Law Enforcement Commission has dozens of unfilled vacancies. Yet it is expected to monitor 6,000 candidates, process 30,000 reports and oversee $69 million in campaign contributions every year with a shrinking staff and budget.”
Former Mayor James has more than $1.1 million in his campaign finance account, the Star-Ledger reported. Nothing in state law now bans him from directing those funds to candidates of his choosing, the newspaper reported.
Republicans in the Senate now have introduced five ethics bills designed to strengthen and codify the ethics reforms Governor Jon Corzine proposed on Sept. 24.
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