Murphy has one month left to pick four new ELEC commissioners

Two months ago, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Elections Transparency Act, a wide-ranging bill that gave him a 90-day period to unilaterally select four new commissioners on the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). With just 29 days left in that period, though, Murphy still has yet to name a single commissioner.

Murphy administration officials have said that appointments will be arriving soon, but it’s not clear exactly when. Asked directly today what his timeframe is, Murphy declined to say.

“It’s in process,” he said. “No news to make today. We’re actively vetting and looking at folks, and my guess is, sooner than later we’ll have news… We’re confident we’re going to get a really good group of bipartisan commissioners.”

The Murphy administration’s battle with ELEC, New Jersey’s campaign finance oversight agency, began last fall, after ELEC executive director Jeff Brindle sent a series of insensitive emails to subordinates. Top Murphy officials demanded Brindle resign, then tried to get ELEC’s three sitting commissioners to dump him; both strategies failed.

The saga didn’t become public until February of this year, when a new provision was unexpectedly added to the otherwise unrelated Elections Transparency Act that would have allowed the governor to appoint ELEC’s executive director himself. After initially being put on the fast-track for passage, outcry from progressives and conservatives alike temporarily shelved the bill.

But it returned just a few weeks later with a slight adjustment: Murphy would no longer have the power to appoint the executive director, but he would instead be given a three-month window to appoint four new commissioners without having to go through the standard Senate confirmation process. (The three incumbent commissioners were on holdover status and the fourth seat was empty, so Murphy was essentially given the power to completely remake the board.)

Shortly before Murphy signed the bill, all three commissioners resigned in protest; Chairman Eric Jaso said that the bill “at least undermines and at worst destroys ELEC’s hard-earned public perception of independence, transparency and freedom from political influence.” 

The lack of commissioners has meant that for the last two months, ELEC has been unable to hold any meetings or issue any enforcement decisions. In early May, two of the three ex-commissioners tried to undo their resignations, but they were rebuffed, keeping the agency in limbo.

Also included in the bill was a $30,000 stipend for each commissioner (up from $0), potentially enticing more prospective candidates for the job.

More importantly, though, the bill cut the statute of limitations on ELEC decisions from ten years to two years, a change that ELEC officials warned would hamper their ability to effectively enforce campaign finance laws. The changes have caused significant anxiety and disquiet within ELEC’s ranks – sentiments which likely aren’t helped by the extended lack of commissioners.