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But the bill's chief sponsor, Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, a Democrat whose district includes portions of Burlington and Camden counties, says the contribution limits haven’t been changed in 17 years and are out of date. And the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Committee opened the floodgate of political donations that are shielded from public view.
The bill would also lower the threshold for barring contractors from being eligible for no-bid contracts. They’d be disqualified from those contracts if they’ve given $200 or more to a campaign, instead of $300. But it would create a loophole in the current pay-to-play restrictions by allowing party organizations to accept donations from government contractors.
When a version of the bill was first introduced and then tabled last summer, the architect of the state’s pay-to-play rules wrote an“The explosion of super PACs and independent expenditure efforts have made increased enforcement of New Jersey’s pay-to-play protections more critical than ever,” wrote Harry Pozycki, founder of the Citizens Campaign, which authored and promoted model versions of the anti-pay-to-play resolutions and ordinances many governments use.