Democratizing the Parties

Trenton Times
Tuesday, July 07, 2009

It seems like a simple thing to ask of county political parties that they have constitutions, bylaws and open, up-to-date membership lists. But it hasn't been the way some of them have done business.

In some counties, a small group, or even a lone party chairman, can call the shots, rig the selection of candidates, dictate how campaign cash is spent, and keep the county committee members -- neighborhood-level party officials whom the voters elected in primaries -- in the dark about even such basics as the identity of their fellow members. Would-be challengers to favored incumbents find high hurdles placed in their path. And when the county committee fills a vacancy in the New Jersey Senate or Assembly, as New Jersey law provides, party leaders observe how the members vote, exposing the members to the threat or perception of intimidation from people who may control their livelihoods.

The effects of these undemocratic procedures are far-reaching. Virtually everyone who ends up in public office in New Jersey comes through the parties, and more than one-third of the 120 current members of the Legislature first got there not by popular election, but by appointment to fill vacancies. It's essential, then, that the way the parties function be as fair and unrigged as the election system itself.

Making that happen is the aim of a bill that both houses of the Legislature approved late last month. The bipartisan measure, the Party Democracy Act, will lay the foundation for increased citizen participation in all the decisions made by county political parties.

Sponsored by Sen. Diane Allen, R-Edgewater Park, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Plainsboro, and others, the bill requires the county parties to have constitutions and bylaws. It guarantees a committeeperson's right to these documents within 48 hours, and requires county clerks -- who are public officials, not party officials -- to maintain up-to-date lists of party committee members, so that elections to fill legislative vacancies aren't threatened by last-minute replacements on the committee, or other irregularities. A key provision requires that these vacancy-filling elections be conducted by secret ballot, to ensure that committee members vote as their consciences, not their party leaders, dictate.

Passage of the Party Democracy Act reflects well on the groups and individuals that pushed hard for it, most prominently the New Jersey Citizens' Campaign, as well as the bill's sponsors and the Assembly and Senate members who gave it big majorities in both houses.