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GOP says it will ‘fully comply with reporting and disclosure laws'

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Three Democratic legislators Wednesday called on Republican legislative leaders to reveal the donors to an organization they created to finance their efforts to reshape the boundaries of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts.

Sen. Lorretta Weinberg (D-Beregen) and Assemblywomen Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-Mercer) and Nellie Pou (D-Passaic) also called on Sen. Tom Kean (R-Esex) and Assemblyman Alex DeCroce (R-Morris) to disband the group.

The Democrats said immediate disclosure would eliminate any undue outside influence in the process and put the interests of the residents of New Jersey first.

Mark Sheridan, counsel for the Center for a Better New Jersey, responded to the demand by referring to earlier comments made by Kean that the group will "fully comply with all reporting and disclosure laws."

In June of 2009, Kean and DeCroce created the nonprofit organization for donations to help the GOP draw its version of proposed district maps. The group is organized as a 501(c)4 — the same as as similar Republican group, Reform New Jersey Now — and by law does not have to disclose its donors or expenses.

Weinberg, Watson Coleman and Pou said requests from the both the public and newspapers to disclose donors have been met with the response that Republicans will comply with their legal obligations. They said that means the public will learn nothing about the group until long after a new map has been drawn.

The legislators charged that the Center for a Better New Jersey will undermine the public interest that has been shown in the process.

"If Reform Jersey Now were Frankenstein, then the Center for a Better New Jersey would definitely be the bride of Frankenstein," said Weinberg, a leading critic of Reform Jersey Now. "The Center for a Better New Jersey and Reform Jersey Now share the same political DNA and were created to allow private political contributions to circumvent state pay-to-play and financial disclosure laws. We have no way of knowing if contributors who have maxed-out on reportable contributions to the Republican leadership PACs are now being directed to give undisclosed, unlimited amounts to the Center for a Better New Jersey."

"We need to pause for a moment to have a candid conversation about transparency," Watson Coleman said. "Quite simply, this group is an affront to our laws and the interests of the people of New Jersey and the fair, open and bipartisan process the apportionment commission is supposed to be undertaking. They are bringing big money influence into what is widely regarded as one of the best, fairest and most open redistricting processes in the nation."

"The public has not always unanimously agreed with the outcome of our redistricting process, but at least they've been able to have faith that it was done in an upstanding way," Pou said. "Thanks to this secretive Republican fundraising effort, the public can no longer have that faith. The laws that Democrats and Republicans alike worked hard to pass to create a more transparent government and restrict the influence of big money in the political process are now being subverted."

As an example of the what they called hypocrisy, the Democrats said that in 2008, when then-Gov. Jon Corzine created a nonprofit organization to promote his plan to pay down state debt through toll hikes, Kean urged the Democratic governor to "immediately" disclose information about donors to "Save Our State NJ Inc.," saying it should be made public before the Legislature voted on the toll plan. Corzine went on disclose the contributions.

When the now-disbanded Reform Jersey Now revealed the $624,000 contributions to support Republican Gov. Chris Christie's initiatives, it was found that the contributors included firms with hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts.

The first two public hearings to discuss the redrawing of the map were met with capacity crowds in Camden and Toms River last weekend. Two more public hearings are scheduled this month and additional hearings are expected.