Candidates in spat over fundraising activities

Bill Baroni

SOUTH BRUNSWICK - Democratic Senate candidate Seema Singh attacked her Republican rival Bill Baroni for participating in fundraisers in districts taking part in the Fair and Clean Elections pilot program.

Baroni has called the concerns silly and accused Singh of holding a double standard.

The Singh campaign issued a statement last week calling on the GOP assemblyman to refrain from participating in fund-raising events that benefit politicians not taking part in the public elections funding program she and her opponent are taking part in, calling the events "unclean."

"Not once, but twice has Bill Baroni lent his name and support to big ticket Republican special interest fundraisers. By supporting politics as usual fundraising, he clearly goes against the spirit of the clean elections program that he and I are participating in," said Singh. "Mr. Baroni needs to cut his ties to his party's political fund-raising operations that violate the spirit and intent of the clean elections program."

Singh referred to Baroni's name being featured on the invitation for a fundraiser to benefit candidates Sean Kean, Phil Haines and Jennifer Beck, scheduled for the 18th. She also referred to a July 26th appearance at a PioCosta for Assembly fundraiser as a special guest.

Seema Singh

"Our repres entatives should lead by example and not conduct themselves in a 'do as I say, not as I do' manner," said Singh. "I am disappointed to see that Mr. Baroni is spending time outside of our district raising 'unclean' cash for political allies. Mr. Baroni is still selling big dollar donors access to public officials, only now he's using other candidates to front for him."

The Fair and Clean Elections pilot program is an experiment taking part in three legislative districts across New Jersey, including the 14th where Baroni and Singh are competing. Under it, candidates qualify for public funding by collecting enough $10 donations, forcing them to engage voters at the grassroots level with the hope that moneyed interests will have less influence in electoral politics.

Baroni said that he feels he did nothing wrong and that Singh's "silly attack" is only meant to distract voters from his Democratic opponent's recent state ethics investigation.

Singh, before running for the Senate, was the state ratepayer advocate, who represents the consumer in matters of utility rates through its membership on all state utility policymaking groups.

"She took thousands in contributions from the very utility executives she was supposed to be regulating and now she's under state ethics investigation, so Seema is clearly trying to distract attention from the fact that she is the candidate under state ethics investigations," said Baroni.

The subject of her ethics investigation involves a complaint filed in December last year about a 2003 incident where Singh hired a former chief of staff, Leora Mosston, as a legal consultant shortly after her retirement, with a significant pay raise on top of her state pension. The Singh campaign has stated that it feels these charges are without merit and that Mosston's hiring was not improper, as staffing issues at the time caused a very large caseload that required assistance to clear.

The contributions Baroni spoke of refers to $3,600 she received in contributions from various utility companies during her primary, which the clean elections program does not yet cover. Singh's campaign has insisted this does not reflect a conflict of interest, pointing to numerous times she had been in direct conflict with utility companies, such as stopping the Exelon/PSE&G merger.

Baroni also said that he felt it was unfair that he was being criticized for attending fundraisers and events for politicians in non-FACE districts, saying that Singh herself has done the same thing.

"She attended a fundraiser, not a clean one, for Assemblyman Chivukula (D - Middlesex-Somerset) at La Fontana after she became a clean elections candidate. So I attended one and it's unacceptable and she does it and it is," said Baroni.