Chris Christie’s New Jersey Republicans Use and Abuse Legal
System to Outlaw Defeat of Incumbent Republicans
Here’s a victory you won’t
hear the Republicans bragging about.
Carl Lewis, the world famous track star who won 9 Gold Olympic medals and
is the only Olympian in history to successfully defend a Gold Medal, has been
ruled ineligible to appear on the New Jersey election ballot (after winning the
primary for the 8th Senate District) thanks to the legal efforts of
Christie’s Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno and the
state Republican Party.
Originally, an administrative law judge allowed Lewis to
run. Guadagno
said no. Then followed
a 2000 election style back and forth with victories and defeats for both sides. What was the issue? The New Jersey Constitution says: “No person shall be a member of the Senate
who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and have been a citizen
and resident of the State for four years, and of the district for which he
shall be elected one year next before his election.”
The issue was
whether the “year next before his election” refers to the whole four years, or
just the one year. Carl Lewis grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. He went to college at the University of
Houston and has lived most of his life thereafter in Texas and California. In 2006, intending to return, he bought two
houses in New Jersey, one for himself and another for his mother. He since returns to
Willingboro to give pointers to the track team at his alma mater. In 2009, he voted by absentee ballot in
California.
The New Jersey
Constitution was written in 1947, before passenger jet travel and
globalization. Someone living in
California can read the newspapers in New Jersey everyday, for free, thanks to
the internet. Assuming that the four
year rule is to ensure the candidate is knowledgeable about New Jersey, it is a
meaningless requirement in twenty-first century. If you want to know why the
United States is unable to compete economically internationally, the Carl Lewis
imbrogolio is a good illustration. Substantially irrelevant technical legal
details are used to impose parochial partisan considerations on the electoral
process, denying voters a chance to express themselves.
The Permanent Redistricting Commission
Even
assuming, for the moment, that the “year next” refers to the four years, let’s
take a look at how this “year next” has been enforced in the past. Next year, New Jersey, like all the other
states, will reapportion its congressional districts. Like many states, the redistricting
commission used to be done by the state legislature. However, in December 1993, in the waning days
of the unpopular Florio Administration, the legislature passed a constitutional
amendment creating a permanent redistricting commission.
The
permanent redistricting commission consists of 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats
with a tie breaker appointed by the governor. (So, the unaffiliated majority of
New Jersey voters get 8% of the members of the redistricting commission,
maybe.) The New Jersey Constitution
provides that: “All questions submitted to the people of the entire State shall
be voted upon at the general election next…. The text of any such question
shall be published at least once in one or more newspapers of each county at
least 60 days before the election….” The redistricting commission amendment
should have appeared on the 1994 general election ballot.
Long story
short, the Secretary of State failed to advertise the permanent redistricting
commission amendment before the 60 day deadline. So, the amendment should have been dead,
given that it could no longer be voted on at the general election next
following its approval by the legislature.
It would have had to be passed again by the legislature. But, because it was a controversial amendment
in the first place, and Governor Whitman did not want to take a stand on such a
controversial or contentious issue, the Whitman administration just ignored the
“year next” provision of the constitution and put the amendment on the 1995 general
election ballot. Some of the same
Division of Election attorneys who argued against Lewis’s candidacy are the
same ones who put the reapportionment commission on the ballot the year after
the year next.
So, if the Carl
Lewis decision is valid, it means New Jersey will have its congressional
districts reapportioned by a prima facie unconstitutional
body. I know what the districts will
look like already; they will not be compact and contiguous and will be drawn
specifically for political advantage. Why can’t the House of Representatives
pass a budget, it’s primary constitutional
function? I can’t understand the reason,
can you?
But
here’s the best part. Ed Forchion, the NJWeedman, a
perennial candidate, convicted felon and bona fide resident of California, will
appear on the 8th District ballot for Assembly. Why?
Because New Jersey has the perfect political election law. Petitions are presumed valid unless
challenged. So, the Republicans in New
Jersey could have allowed the voters to decide whether Carl Lewis, the world
famous Olympic medalist, was worthy of being a State Senator. Instead, Governor Christie’s administration used
the election law for the narrowest of all partisan political purposes. It is a
disgrace that makes the television show Jersey Shore look high class by
comparison.
This is the way Chris Christie’s administration chooses to
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds at a time of teacher
layoffs and budget austerity, to deny voters a choice in legislative
elections. I can’t figure out why the
median income of New Jersey’s families fell 3% last year, can you? Who would want to invest or live in a state
run by gangsters?
Corrupt Prosecutors and Attorneys General
In the old days, prosecutors and
attorneys general foreswore political office because of the obvious potential
conflict of interest between prosecutorial discretion and political
advantage. Now, the formula has been
turned on its head. Chris Christie used
and abused his office as a federal prosecutor as a weapon in his political
campaign for governor, viciously prosecuting small time political miscreants
(mostly black Democrats) and giving passes to white collar fraudsters who
subsequently became big campaign donors.
And it’s not just
Christie. Attorney General has become a
stepping stone to the Governor’s mansion: Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo in New
York, Jerry Brown in California. Funny how the mainstream media has failed to notice this pattern, especially
sons of former Governors who also were Attorneys General, just to name a few.
(Look at the geographical distribution: Brown and Cuomo, both sons of former
Governors, both former Attorneys Generals, one on the east coast the other on
the west, a nationwide trend.) And
Richard Blumenthal parlayed his Attorney General’s position into a United
States Senate seat. Hey, we can’t let a world famous figure who
came up from nothing into this game. Right?
Currently, seventeen of
the fifty Governors, one-third, were Attorneys General, or prosecutors: Tom
Corbett, Pa.; Mike Beebe, Ar.; Jerry Brown, Ca.; Dan
Molloy, Ct.; Nathan Deal, Ga.; Steve Beshear, Ky.;
Martin O’Malley, Md.; Deval Patrick, Ma.; Jay Nixon,
Mo.; Brian Sandoval, Nv.; Christopher Christie, NJ.;
Susana Martinez, NM.; Andrew Cuomo, NY.; Tom Corbett, Pa.; Bob McDonnell, Va.;
Christine Gregoire, Wa.;
and Matthew Mead, Wy..
Appointed Legislators
Carl Lewis’s elimination from the 8th
District State Senate race leaves Dawn Marie Addiego
unopposed as the winner of the race, unless there is a write-in campaign. Until 1988, the only way to become a New
Jersey state legislator was to win an election.
But in 1988, the legislature decided to create an
appointment route. The county committee
members of the party that held the office could fill the vacancy by
appointment. Naturally, the
constitutional amendment creating this appointive power would have no chance of
passing at the polls, so the legislature, with the connivance of others like
the League of Women Voters, misrepresented the effect of the amendment.
The Explanatory Statement
that appears on the ballot with constitutional amendments in New Jersey is part
of the bill that passes the legislature.
(The Governor does not have to sign amendments passed by the
legislature.) For the redistricting commission the Explanatory Statement said
that the amendment, “requires the county committee to
appoint a replacement within 90 days…” as if the current law allowed them to
delay. Voters were never told the
amendment was taking away their right to fill vacancies and giving it to
political party committees.
In the twenty-three years since the amendment was passed,
the norm in New Jersey has become that sitting legislators who intend to step
down resign before the end of their terms, allowing a party faithful to be
appointed in their place and then to run as an incumbent. Seeing as most districts are gerrymandered
for party control, New Jersey has succeeded in virtually eliminating voter
input in the state legislature. The
right to fill vacancies in the legislature, that was taken from voters by
fraud, has made legislators are more beholden to the party leaders than to the
electorate. And Rick Perry wants to give
them back the power to choose United States Senators. I just can’t understand why the economy is
collapsing, can you?
The League of Women Voters supported the appointment
procedure to “save on the cost of special elections.” It ought to rename itself the New Jersey
League of Women Money Savers.
The Morris County Freeholder Race (Freeholders are County
Commissioners)
Carl Lewis’s race is not the only
one where the courts are being misused for partisan political purposes. In Morris County there was a Republican
Primary between twenty-tree year old William “Hank” Lyon and three term
incumbent Freeholder Margaret Nordstrom.
When all the votes were counted, Lyon won by four.
Nordstrom filed suit,
alleging voting irregularities (unauthorized absentee ballots) and that Lyon
failed to report a $16,000 loan from his father until after the election that
he used to finance a mailing. Election Law Enforcement Commission rules require
notification within 48 hours if it happens within the final weeks of the
campaign.
Long story short, the judge
threw out the election and declared the office vacant so that it could be
filled by appointment by the county committee.
Not only is there no statute allowing judges to void elections, the
judge cited the late notification of the loan and claimed the mailing contained
falsehoods, as the reason for voiding the election. New Jersey state law vests enforcement of
election finance law violations in the Election Law Enforcement
Commission. There is no statute allowing
elections to be voided on the basis of campaign finance reporting
violations. [The New Jersey Election Law
Enforcement Commission only deals with campaign finance,
all other election issues are handled by the Division of Elections, now under
the Lieutenant Governor.]
And
here’s where the corruption of judges comes in.
Judge Thomas Weisenbeck can say and do
anything he wants, void the election on frivolous grounds or none. Given the time constraints of elections, the
losing party is faced with not only time constraints, but huge financial costs
of seeking to overturn the judge’s decision.
And that is what is happening.
In the end, the county committee appointed Margaret
Nordstrom Republican candidate for Morris County freeholder candidate by a narrow
margin of 213 – 208 over Hank Lyon. She
will lose in November to Truschia Quatrone,
the Democratic candidate.
Here’s the best part. The New Jersey Campaign Finance Act is
another completely political law. There
are loopholes so big you can drive an SUV through the reporting
requirement. Legislative “Leadership”
Committees can raise $25,000 from individuals, whereas candidates are limited
to $2,600. Consequently, much of the
money for legislative races comes from the Leadership Committees, again
reinforcing the power of the party leaders.
The donors to the candidate are listed as “Legislative Leadership
Committee”, so, in effect, it is impossible to ascertain who is actually
funding the legislative candidates favored by the party leaders. So, while some candidates’ finances are functionally
impossible to ascertain, others now are having their elections thrown out
entirely due to errors in reporting requirements.
Chris Christie got his start
in electoral politics as a Morris County Freeholder. And Chris Christie is a
candidate national Republicans are begging to run for President? President of what, the
Soviet Union? Christie has turned
corruption of government administration and the judiciary for political
purposes into policy. The Republican
Party in New Jersey no longer believes in democracy.
American Exceptionalism
Unfortunately, too many Americans
think rules of fair play and honest elections do not apply to them. They think the ends
justifies the means, without realizing that in politics, the ends are
the means. In the twentieth century, the American century, the United States
had an incredible run of good luck.
People began to think that no matter what politicians and corporate
leaders did, the country would always prosper.
Those days have come to an end.
The United States is becoming just another corrupt banana republic with
rigged elections, a few super-rich and an impoverished everyone else. Corrupt elections prevent voters from
influencing the policies necessary to solve the serious economic problems
facing the nation and the world. Disqualifying
Carl Lewis, an internationally known Olympian, from the New Jersey state senate
campaign for purely partisan political reasons is a disgrace and an
embarrassment. The television show
Jersey Shore presents a more positive view of New Jersey than its Governor,
Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Division of Elections and judiciary.
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