Clean election system shows promise, flaws

Fans of local politics are in for a real treat this year with District 14's participation in the Fair and Clean Elections Pilot Project (FACE). Rarely will you see candidates compelled to campaign so literally at the grassroots level - standing around in flip-flops at backyard barbecues, walking through neighborhoods and introducing themselves to voters on their lawns. It's a true experiment in political science, one that forces politicians from the comfort zones of their offices and brings the campaigns back to the people.

In FACE, you, the average voter, have the same monetary clout as the special interests. Candidates can't simply call a party boss like John Lynch to bankroll their campaign, because the power brokers could only give the same $10 as you. In theory, the incentive for a politician to use the power of his or her office to look after the special interests is no longer there.

This year, three legislative districts were chosen to take part in FACE - the Republican-controlled District 24 (Hunterdon/Sussex/Morris), the Democratic 37th (Bergen) and South Brunswick's own 14th (Middlesex/Mercer), which was picked as a split-district that could go either way in the election. Candidates will each be challenged to collect at least 400 $10 donations to qualify for $50,000 in public funding, with a maximum of $100,000 available in Districts 24 and 37 for racking up 800 donors.

If we have any early criticism of FACE's new rules, it's that in the battleground District 14, the maximum amount of money the state has agreed to provide each candidate is outrageously high. Like their peers in 24 and 37, each candidate is entitled to $50,000 from the state once they reach the 400 donor mark. But according to the fine print of this year's guidelines, the state will contribute about $1,200 for each donor a candidate enlists up to 800. Therefore, it's conceivable that between seed money and matching funds, the state will give the six candidates more than $535,000 each - over $3 million total for the tickets - for their campaigns.

That's an awful lot of money to ask of taxpayers just to ensure our candidates aren't corrupt. We call on all six candidates involved to come to a friendly agreement ASAP that would cap what they accept from the state at a much more reasonable level. In our view, they could cut the funding in half and it would still be far too high. One of the goals of FACE is to level the playing field monetarily. If everybody is going to have the same amount of money, then where's the need to spend so much of it?

Another minor flaw in the system is that special interests would seem able to exploit the candidates' ability to collect $10,000 in seed money through $500 donations. That's not what you'd call big money for a state-level campaign, but as the FBI's Operation Bid Rig investigations have shown, some politicians can be bought on the cheap.

FACE has plenty of room for improvement over the disastrous 2005 trial run. That year, the GOP-controlled District 13 (Monmouth/Middlesex) and the Democratic District 6 (Camden) took part under a different set of rules. Those candidates had to raise 1,000 $5 donations and 500 $30 donations to qualify for public funding. That may sound easy on paper, but only two participating candidates - the Democrats in District 6 - pulled it off. When the Republican ticket of incumbent Assemblyman Sam Thompson and longtime Monmouth County Freeholder Amy Handlin failed to qualify in 13, despite an admirable effort, it became clear the threshold was just too high.

This time, the cost of donating was lowered and simplified, and the number of contributions was cut in half. It should now be much easier for the candidates to qualify, but hopefully not too easy. The spirit of FACE is to make candidates work for the support of ordinary voters, not just party operatives.