Call it the Wayne Bryant rule.
The Election Law Enforcement Commission has explicitly barred all lawmakers and other public officials from using their campaign accounts to pay for their legal defenses. Bryant, the formerly powerful state Senator from Camden County, had asked to use his campaign fund to pay for his defense in his corruption trial and was denied. The new rule codifies that decision.
Former Senators Sharpe James and Joseph Coniglio had just gone ahead and used their campaign accounts without asking permission and were not stopped because ELEC generally doesn't take action unless there is a specific complaint filed.
The new rule, however, appears to pro-actively bar anyone else from using their campaign funds for legal defenses. ELEC ruled that corruption defenses are not an "ordinary and necessary" part of an officials' duties. Even in New Jersey.
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