It’s been nearly a decade since the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has had all four seats filled at the same time, a recurring problem caused by the last three governors.
One Republican seat has been vacant for nearly four years, leaving Democrats with a 2-1 majority at today’s emergency commission meeting to reconsider whether Republican gubernatorial candidate Philip Rizzo will qualify for more $1 million in campaign matching funds.
While ELEC rarely splits along party lines, Murphy’s failure to fill the Republican vacancy could open him up to criticism.
While there is no evidence that the governor has tried to put his thumb on the scale, there’s little doubt that Murphy would benefit from Rizzo receiving matching funds. That potentially changes the Republican gubernatorial contest, maybe forcing presumptive nominee Jack Ciattarelli to deviate his focus off of Murphy and the general election and on to Rizzo.
“We have too many vacancies in key spots across New Jersey, and they aren’t being treated with urgency until it’s too late,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “Nowhere is this urgency more acute than at ELEC, which requires partisan balance and even-handedness, and possesses special responsibilities in a gubernatorial election year. It should have a full complement of commissioners, to give the public full confidence in its decisions.”
When the legislature created ELEC in 1973, the intention was for a bi-partisan commission.
ELEC commissioner nominations require Senate confirmation.
The current Election Law Enforcement Commission is chaired by Eric Jaso, a Republican who served on the congressional redistricting commission and served as an assistant U.S. Attorney under Chris Christie and held posts at the Departments of Justice and Education under President George W. Bush. Jaso was appointed by Christie in 2016.
The other two commissioners, both Democrats, are retired Superior Court judges named by Christie: Stephen Holden from South Jersey; and Marguerite Simon of North Jersey.
For a while, ELEC was down to just two commissioners.
Ronald DeFilippis resigned on July 21, 2017 and was elected Morris County GOP Chairman eleven months later. Walter F. Timpone resigned and became an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. During that time, some matters could not be heard because conflict of interests left the commission without a quorum.
The last four-member commission was in November 2011, when Lawrence Weiss, a former judge named earlier that year to succeed Jerry Fitzgerald English, died in office.
The governor’s office did not immediately reply to a Wednesday afternoon request for comment.
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