N.J. official calls again to reform pay-to-play rules

A year has passed since a town-hall meeting in Hunterdon County at which Gov. Christie called on state lawmakers to tighten restrictions on the practice of businesses trading political contributions for government contracts.

The result? Virtually nothing.

On Thursday, New Jersey Comptroller Matthew Boxer reinforced the need for tougher contracting rules in a report that found the current "pay-to-play" law meaningless in preventing towns from doling out work to politically connected firms.

The report criticized a legal loophole that allows towns and counties to award contracts in excess of $17,500 to campaign donors as long as officials advertise the work publicly and solicit proposals in a "fair and open" process.

Because the law does not require officials to choose the lowest bidder for professional services, such as legal and engineering jobs, they are able to steer jobs to favored firms.

Under the "fair and open" exception, Boxer said in a statement, "the ultimate award is within the [town's] discretion and immune from outside review."

No such exemption exists at the state level, where firms that donate more than $300 to gubernatorial candidates and state parties cannot receive state contracts. State vendors still may donate to legislators.

The report from the Comptroller's Office recommended eliminating the "fair and open" provision, strengthening it to ensure greater competition, or limiting the use of no-bid contracts at all levels of government.

The overhaul of pay-to-play rules has stalled in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, in part because of disputes over whether unions should be subject to the same campaign-donation restrictions as companies.

Christie, a Republican, and GOP legislators have insisted on including unions, Democrats' traditional base of support.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) benefited from the status quo when, as freeholder director in Gloucester County, he received campaign contributions from firms that held county contracts. Though he is no longer a freeholder, some continue to contribute to him.

"Don't go there with me. Please," Sweeney said Thursday when asked about donations to his campaigns.

Asked why Democrats had not addressed pay-to-play after Christie requested legislative action, Sweeney noted the number of bills he had posted related to the economy, taxes, and government restructuring.

"You've seen the load we have. . . . You could criticize me for why I didn't put up a bill for curing baldness," said Sweeney, who controls which measures are voted on in the Senate.

He said he did not think the governor's proposal to include unions in a pay-to-play ban was legal but said he was "open to working on campaign-finance reform."

Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie, questioned in an e-mail how Sweeney or Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D., Essex) could "explain their inaction."

Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D., Bergen) introduced a bill in December that would end the fair-and-open exemption. But she said her efforts to bring in Senate Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R., Union) as a cosponsor failed over the union issue.

"To say you're not going to support a bill because there's not everything you wanted is a cop-out," Weinberg said.

Kean did not return calls seeking comment.

All 120 seats in the Legislature are up for election in November and hundreds more local candidates are running for office.

Some in the Legislature run county party organizations that rely on local contractors for donations to support candidates. Sens. Jim Leach and Donald Norcross, who cochair the Camden County Democratic Committee, did not respond to requests for comment about the report.

Pay-to-play wastes public money because contractors build the cost of campaign contributions into the price of their work, said Heather Taylor, spokeswoman for Citizens' Campaign.

The organization has criticized the "fair and open" exemption for years.

"It's a really systemic problem that [the comptroller's] report clearly addresses. . . . This should be a priority," Taylor said.