ELEC will hold public hearing on Brindle next week

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) is set to hold a public hearing on its own executive director, Jeff Brindle, at 1 p.m. next Tuesday. The investigation will focus on an allegedly homophobic email Brindle sent last fall, an email which prompted attempts to oust Brindle from his role leading New Jersey’s campaign finance watchdog organization.

“As commissioners, we have an obligation to think through and make a decision about what the appropriate institutional reaction should be,” ELEC Commissioner Stephen Holden told the New Jersey Globe today about the hearing.

Holden said that it’s not yet clear what the hearing will look like, or who will be called to testify. The original complainant against Brindle has not publicly come forward, and a second complaint against Brindle for allegedly making a racist remark has been even hazier.

Brindle is also suing the Murphy administration, though Holden said that the hearing will not focus on the lawsuit’s allegations against Murphy and his top staffers.

In October 2022, Brindle sent an insensitive email about National Coming Out Day that prompted a complaint from a subordinate at ELEC. Murphy administration officials demanded that Brindle resign over the email, but he refused; they then tried to persuade ELEC’s three sitting commissioners to fire Brindle, but that effort was also unsuccessful.

“On the basis of that [complaint], to propose that somebody’s 40-year career be ended, seemed a little strident to me,” Holden said.

Holden said that, after he and his fellow commissioners had been apprised of the complaint last fall, they offered to conduct an investigation, but the governor’s office chose to conduct its own investigation instead. The results of that investigation, Holden said, were presented to the commissioners earlier this month.

In the midst of the battle over Brindle – which only became public in February of this year – the state legislature has been debating a bill that would likely result in Brindle and every current ELEC commissioner losing their jobs.

Under the proposed Elections Transparency Act, Murphy would temporarily get direct appointment powers over ELEC’s four commissioners, who choose the commission’s executive director. If enacted, the bill would sweep away the three sitting commissioners, all of whom are on holdover status; the fourth seat has been left vacant for years.

In other words, Murphy would be granted the ability to choose any four commissioners he wished without needing to go through the State Senate, which currently has advise and consent powers over ELEC nominations. The commissioners Murphy picks would presumably follow his lead and push Brindle out.

The bill isn’t law yet, however. It passed the Senate yesterday on its third attempt, while the Assembly is likely to vote on it next Thursday.