Incumbent Protection Act

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

New Jersey’s lame-duck governor, James McGreevey, and his handpicked, unelected successor, Richard Codey, have come up with yet another scheme to block political reform and choke small business in the Garden State. They are attempting to ban those who do business with the state from contributing to the political campaigns of their opponents.


This is heralded – by them – as an effort to clean up politics (the ban extends to donations to the incumbents, too). But if they really just wanted to clean up politics, the powerful politicians would just say that they won’t accept any more campaign contributions from people or companies who do business with the state government. Instead, they are issuing a ban that applies not just to themselves, but to those who might run against them, and to government contractors who might be so fed up with politics in New Jersey that they’d like to back candidates who oppose the ones in office.


Incumbents have an easier time raising money than challengers to begin with. Preventing challengers from soliciting contributions from a whole class of potential donors will just make it harder to dislodge the politicians in power. And it infringes on the First Amendment rights of those who do business with the state. They may, after all, want to participate in politics for reasons that may have nothing to do with their business interests.


What’s more, the way the McGreevey order is worded, it bans contributions by “principals who own or control more than 10 percent of the profits or assets of a business entity or 10 percent of the stock in the case of a business entity that is a corporation for profit.” That discriminates against small businessmen, who may own a large share of their companies. But it leaves the door wide open for contributions by, say, equal partners in a dozen partner law firm, or an executive at a huge corporation.


The chief executive’s 1% stake in Hypothetical Mega Industries Inc. may be worth 20 times the value of the owner’s 90% stake in Smallbiz Inc. But under the McGreevey order, the Mega Industries chief executive can donate to campaigns, while the Smallbiz owner can’t. Executives of labor unions and directors and executives of nonprofit social service organizations, which often lobby for higher taxes and more government spending and which have contracts with the state, aren’t subject to the ban. But business owners are.


No doubt the issues raised in this ridiculous order are going to end up being tested in court against the protections in the Bill of Rights in respect of speech and petition, not to mention equal protection. Meantime it’s one more article of proof, were one needed, that the best thing for the people of New Jersey would have been for their disgraced governor to have left office quickly after announcing his resignation. That would have left time for an election and the free flow of political debate and contributions, something that Mr. McGreevey seems determined to avoid.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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