The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has dropped Edwin Matthews as its counsel after nearly 14 years and replaced him with Scott Salmon, an election lawyer from Union County.
Matthews, 82, a former South Orange Village Trustee and municipal court judge, was named to the post in 2012. He had sought reappointment, but ELEC commissioners – all named by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2023 after a legislative overhaul of the campaign finance watchdog agency – chose to make a change.
ELEC Chairman Tom Prol thanked Matthews for his service.
Salmon, 36, a partner at Jardim Meisner Salmon Sprague & Susser, was the unanimous pick of the four ELEC commissioners at their monthly meeting today. He represents several municipalities as an attorney and was named by Murphy to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority.
He becomes only the fourth counsel in the 53-year history of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Matthews replaced James Wyse, who had served as counsel since 1994. On behalf of ELEC, Wyse successfully argued a New Jersey Supreme Court decision barring elected officials from using campaign funds to defend themselves against criminal corruption charges. Wyse had succeeded his law partner, Edward J. Farrell, a nationally recognized campaign finance expert who became ELEC’s first counsel when the panel was formed in 1973.