You don’t say

Consider this headline from the Asbury Park Press an evergreen that can apply to any political contest:

12th District foes attack each other


We all do this, of course. Perhaps we shouldn’t. Perhaps headlines do the newspaper industry no favors at all.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Finding flaws (nothing fatal) in clean election

Linda Greenstein is under attack from an unaffiliated organization that she says is distorting her record.

According to press release issued Friday, “for rescue funds under the Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Program as a result of an egregious attack campaign undertaken by a third-party organization.”

A group named Common Sense America, based in Princeton, N.J., has reportedly placed a $125,000 radio buy with WKXW 101.5 FM. Constituents in Assemblywoman Greenstein’s district also are receiving push poll calls that distort her legislative record on issues including taxes, monetization, criminal sentencing and same sex marriage. Supporters reported these calls to the campaign beginning the evening of October 11, 2007.

The attacks, she says, are a violation of the state’s clean elections law and warrant an infusion of cash designed to level the playing field.

The district’s Republican candidates — Assemblyman Bill Baroni for senate and Adam Bushman and Tom Goodwin for Assembly — have denounced the third-party ads, as well.

To some, the attack ads might show a flaw in the clean elections program. But no one should be surprised. The system was set up to deal with just such an outside assault. That’s why there is a rescue fund.

The clean elections fund, contrary to what some of the state’s papers may imply, is not designed as a panacea. It can’t clean up elections all by itself. The state — and the nation — have to cleanse the political culture.

In the meantime, third-party ads are a fact of life.

Of greater concern is the general unfairness of current system, which grants independent and third-party candidates less money than their major-party opponents.

Earlier this week, Jason Scheurer, a Libertarian who qualified as a “clean elections” Assembly candidate in the 14th District, sued for state funding on an equal footing with the major party candidates. The program provides greatly reduced funding to independents.

Scheurer got $23,521 for raising 448 contributions of $10 each. If he were a Democrat or Republican, he would have been entitled to $103,645 under the formula for distributing state funding.

His lawsuit also challenges the fairness of provisions allowing candidates who raised 400 contributions of $10 each by Aug. 17 to have a 250-word statement printed on sample ballots and to run with the slogan “clean elections candidate.” Scheurer missed that deadline, while his Democratic and Republican opponents met it.

“His money is just as clean as the other candidates’ money. He just gets an awful lot less of it,” Scheurer’s attorney, Walter Luers of Atlantic Highlands, said. “Whether he gets a 250-word statement on the ballot should not be determined by his fundraising capability.”

He’s right, of course. At least on this.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Convention time in New Jersey

The governor wants his administration to find $3 billion in spending cuts before heading into next year’s budget discussions — $3 billion cuts in a budget of about $32 billion, or nearly 10 percent.

That’s a deep slashing on the spending side that will affect services. The questions are what services and are we willing to settle for service cuts?

The suspicion here is that the announcement is nothing more than a precursor for a more fevered fight on his part to get his asset monetization plan through — sell or lease state assets, take the proceeds and pay down the debt. That maybe where the governor is headed, but it would be foolish on our part to follow. Monetization is just another budget gimmick in a state with a history of budget gimmicks.

But we have to be honest, as well — something rare among state and local government officials — that state finances cannot be addressed in one budget with cuts, tax hikes or gimmicks and that the financial crisis in New Jersey is about more than just the state. Local governments are sinking under the weight of property tax increases that have locals angry and many moving out.

Real reform is what is needed: consolidation of municipalities and school boards, the elimination of small taxing districts (fire, garbage), strict rules governing the borrowing of money by the state, a new funding approach for schools, a complete reconfiguration of state taxes (income taxes, anyone?).

The Legislature, of course, does not have the stomach for any of this. So it will be up to the citizenry to identify what is important — what services they believe are needed, how municipalities should be structured, etc.

It is time for a constitutional convention. I just don’t see any other way.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.