ELEC says 'no' to Bryant chutzpah

Though ELEC did not take up my suggestion (see here), former State Sen. Wayne Bryant's argument that he was entitled to use leftover campaign funds to pay for his defense in a corruption case as 'a customary and necessary expense of holding public office' was denied by the board yesterday, 3-0.

Customary?! Necessary?!

The decision against Bryant's chutzpah gained wide notice, including the Ledger and Gannett papers as well as the New York Times.

Kelly Heyboer, who surveys New Jersey blogs for the Ledger, picked it up as her story this morning, citing several blogs throughout the state (see here).

Including Plainfield Today -- the only blog to actually offer a positive proposal about what to do with these leftover funds in the case of miscreant legislators (see proposal here).

Still haven't had any takers on the idea, though.

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• Kelly Heyboer on NJ Blogs: "Denied: No Cash for Wayne Bryant"
• Ledger: "State says Bryant can't tap campaign funds for defense"
• NY Times: "Ex-Senator Can’t Use Campaign Fund in Legal Case"
• Gannett: "ELEC denies Bryant request for defense money"
  
• Plainfield Today (Jan. 11): "A proposal for indicted pols' campaign funds"

-- Dan Damon

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A proposal for indicted pols' campaign funds

How's this for chutzpah?

Indicted former State Sen. Wayne Bryant has asked the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) for permission to use his $626,000 in unspent campaign funds to pay defense lawyers in his bribery and corruption case, saying the legal costs are 'ordinary and necessary expenses' of holding public office.

The story, reported in today's Ledger (see here), follows on the heels of buzz in yesterday's Ledger, New York Times and Gannett papers that Bryant was planning the move. Today's story further reveals that former State Sen. Joseph Coniglio reported spending $90,000 of his campaign funds on lawyers for HIS corruption case.

This is the ultimate in pay-to-play: recycling the cash back to the 'vendors' even after indicted for corruption.

I have a modest proposal for the Legislature and ELEC.

When a sitting legislator is indicted for a crime, his or her campaign funds should be frozen until they are found either guilty or innocent.

If the indicted pol is convicted, the campaign funds should be seized and turned over to the state's Clean Election program. If found innocent, the freeze is unblocked.

Now, who can we find to sponsor such a bill?

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• Today's Ledger: "Accused ex-legislators turn to campaign cash to pay legal bills"
• Yesterday: "Ex-Senator Bryant wants to pay lawyers with campaign cash" -- Ledger | NY Times | Gannett |
• Website: "Election Law Enforcement Commission"
  

-- Dan Damon

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Nonprofit disclosures will make ELEC data more interesting

Plainfielders may find a lot to like in ELEC's latest ruling.

With the ruling by ELEC (the Election Law Enforcement Commission), New Jersey's campaign finance monitoring agency, that nonprofits that receive state and local government contracts over $50,000 must disclose them, as well as political contributions over $300 made by their board members, spouses and living-at-home children, it's going to get really interesting rooting around in ELEC's electronic file cabinets.

After October 31st, when the first batch of reports is due.

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• Ledger: "Nonprofit groups told to disclose government contracts"

-- Dan Damon

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NJ nonprofits fight disclosing political contributions

New Jersey nonprofits were supposed to start filing reports on their political contributions with the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) this month, according to rules promulgated last Spring.

ELEC has extended that deadline to October 30, but is facing pressure from politicos (why am I not surprised?) and the nonprofits to drop the requirement, according to reports in the Ledger and the Courier.

The jawdropper is that even Harry Pozycki, Mr. Get-Rid-of-Pay-to-Play, is agin' it.

Huh?!

I don't get it.

If you're a nonprofit and you're making political contributions (which I happen to think you should not), you should report. Pure and simple.

And, yes, I know it's a pain in the butt. Been there, done that.

And if you think that public knowledge of your nonprofit's contributions would disaffect your financial supporters or create bad publicity for your organization, why on earth are you doing it in the first place?

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Ledger: "Nonprofit groups get reprieve on campaign donation rules"
Courier: "Nonprofit groups get extension to file forms"

-- Dan Damon

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ELEC investigating allegations against Rahway Dems

Letter from ELEC acknowledging investigation.

New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) has begun an investigation of allegations against the Rahway Democratic City Committee concerning missing reports for the 2006 municipal election cycle.

Bryan Desrochers, who was a Republican candidate for a 22nd District Assembly seat (Plainfield's district) filed the complaint with ELEC in July.

Desrochers complains that neither Mayor James Kennedy, nor his running mates Sal Mione, Nancy Saliga, and James Baker filed ANY of the state-required campaign finance reports.

This is a serious charge and could result in penalties of many thousands of dollars against the Rahway City Committee and the individual candidates.

The letter of complaint states that --

No Election Cycle reports were filed for the 29-day pre-election deadline, the 11-day pre-election deadline, and the 20-day post-election deadline. In addition, the Rahway Democratic City Committee failed to file any report in January as is required for all Political committees in the State of NJ.

This is not the first time Rahway Dems have come to the attention of ELEC.

Rahway Mayor James Kennedy.

In 1997, Kennedy's aide was caught sending out letters in support of Jim McGreevey's gubernatorial bid on City time. That incident resulted in a letter of reprimand from the Union County Prosecutor.

With all the development going on in Rahway, the suspicion of some is that a record of donations would indicate pay-to-play involvement. This may be the case, but most likely there will be no provable quid pro quo 'smoking gun.'

That does not mean the ELEC fines may not be substantial.

Keep an eye on this one.

-- Dan Damon

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Revamped ELEC website sucks

Election Law Enforcement Commission Homepage

In my humble, humble opinion, it sucks.

I use the ELEC site periodically -- which means at election times. Have done so for years, without problems.

Well, except the clunky way the search engine works, but that's another matter.

When I tried to get some reports during this past June's Primary Election cycle, it was like butting your head against the wall.

Clicking on the report search button caused my browser to freeze. OK, I fired up IE (NOT my browser of choice), and tried again. Ditto. I rebooted and tried over. Results consistent.

There were no indications on the site that indicated things had changed -- EXCEPT, there was a small note that the site was 'powered by Crystal Reports'. I didn't remember that from the last time I used the site.

I called the number listed on ELEC's front page and was quickly connected to what sounded like a young man who very politely asked what seemed to be the problem.

When I told him I was using Firefox as my browser, he said it was not supported. When I said that I had also tried Internet Explorer but that it, too, froze, he said that I needed to update my Java runtime environment.

OK.

That didn't work either, so I sort of gave up on the reports and wandered off. After all, there ARE other things to do in life, even for a political junkie.

A few days later, a friend, a candidate's wife, called to complain that she wasn't able to access the reports.

A day or two later, I ran into another friend on the way to a Council meeting. She said she, too, was unable to get at the reports.

So, I went back to take another look. This time I spotted TWO links I had never noticed before. One was to a help line specifically for WEB related questions. The other turned out to be a popup window entitled "Best Viewing Requirements"

That nice little popup window repeated the information the gent had given me over the phone.

What's wrong with this picture?

I can't believe the state government thinks we should all be using Internet Explorer. Firefox has about 13% of the market and is growing. What about Opera? What about Apple's Safari, including the new public beta of its Windows version?

Sheez!

Would be glad to hear if the mileage of other people matches my own.

dandamon at comcast dot net.

-- Dan Damon

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