Your Turn
Citizens need to re-enter the public arena
Harry Pozycki
Guest Column

Former Sen. John Lynch's agreement to plead guilty was probably the most important development in the past few weeks of unappetizing headlines in our state's major newspapers. A powerful force in state and local politics, Lynch was a master of the pay-to-play system, in which large political contributions are traded for lucrative government contracts. And despite the recent news, this system is starting to take some major blows.

In fact, New Jersey has begun to make significant progress in addressing its pervasive political corruption problem. The adoption of one of the strongest state-level pay-to-play reform laws in the nation, coupled with the effective job being done by U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, is beginning to change New Jersey's political culture. More and more elected officials of both parties are now answering the electorate's insistent call for reform.

But this reform promise will be incomplete unless these changes are accompanied by systemic ones that encourage the development of new citizen leaders in our government and politics. Corruption is the result of the fact that citizens have left the political realm nearly completely in the hands of career politicians, inside players, and political professionals. The long-term health of New Jersey's political culture depends on the stepped-up involvement of its citizens.

It is time for "we" citizens to re-enter the public arena. For in our democracy, the citizenry is the real fourth branch of government and the fullness of reform cannot be achieved until we learn about the power structure and participate beyond the ballot box.

But if we are to rise to the occasion, we need more than activism and a renewed sense of duty. We need to break down the barriers to citizen leadership which have thwarted the efforts of so many individuals with good government aspirations.

First, the election process must be opened up to regular citizens by completing the pay-to-play reform agenda. Pay-to-play cripples electoral competition by allowing party bosses to amass large war chests - war chests that discourage the emergence of challengers. Comprehensive pay-to-play reform that enacts protections on the county and local level similar to the ones now in place at the state level is essential.

Second, we must break open the closed shop of government appointments. People are now kept in the dark about available appointed government leadership positions and avenues to access these posts. And in the darkness, political bosses place cronies and contributors on key state boards and authorities. Public directories of available government leadership positions, coupled with citizen leadership forums on how to seek appointments, would constitute a powerful invitation to citizen participation.

Finally, the county political parties, which wield so much power in our state, need to be opened up and democratized. Under the present system of optional party rules, county bosses dominate, and the development of leadership among elected neighborhood party representatives is stymied.

It is time for New Jersey's political parties to have legally required constitutions and bylaws available to the thousands of these neighborhood party committee people. With this potential to provide real grassroots representation, a third avenue would be opened to citizens who can offer new leadership to our political parties.

Taken together, these proposed systemic changes are critical to creating a fertile environment for the return of citizen leadership - the only true guarantor of a healthy political culture and the only true path to ending New Jersey's culture of corruption.

Harry Pozycki is the chairman of Citizens' Campaign, based in Metuchen