Hoboken Democrats Want ‘Fair Playing Ground’ For Campaign Finance

HOBOKEN, NJ — The following op-ed comes courtesy of Hoboken Democratic Committee members. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site.

According to the Democratic National Committee’s platform, “Democrats believe we must fight to preserve the essence of the longest standing democracy in the world: a government that represents the American people, not just a handful of powerful and wealthy special interests.” While this represents the position of the Democratic Party nationally, the principal of fair elections is just as vital to local municipal elections. The fear that “Big money is drowning out the voices of everyday Americans, and we must have the necessary tools to fight back and safeguard our electoral and political integrity,” is as true in Hoboken as it is in Washington.

We are fortunate that the City of Hoboken has robust campaign finance laws that help to safeguard the integrity of our local elections, including strict pay-to-play laws that keeps our City government honest. On Thursday, September 26, the Hoboken City Council will be considering those very same laws and will decide whether to continue to enforce and respect the current local law.

As a community, we must collectively urge the Council to enforce our reasonable current campaign finance and pay-to-play laws to maintain a fair playing ground and set reasonable rules for all candidates for local office to follow. Hoboken’s municipal elections are coming in November. Candidates have already collected and submitted petitions, and ballot positions have been assigned. All this has happened under the current campaign finance law. Now, only weeks from the election, changing those laws would be tantamount to changing the rules mid-game. Such an outcome would be unacceptable and antithetical to democratic norms.

Please come out to the Council meeting on September 26, 7pm, to demonstrate your support for upholding and enforcing Hoboken’s existing campaign finance and pay-to-play laws.

Respectfully,

Tara Mullins, HDC Member

Kurt Thoens, HDC Member

Vera Sirota, HDC Member

Martin Anderson, HDC Member

David Tornabene, HDC Member

James Castiglione, HDC Member

Eileen Carvalho, HDC Member

Jennifer Brennan, HDC Member

Seth Abrams, HDC Member

Lisa Russo, HDC Member

Bruce Prussak, HDC Member

Jonathan Otto, HDC Member

Alyse Battaglia, HDC Member

Patricia Kelly, HDC Member

Anthony Rios, HDC Member

Dasha Yerokhin, HDC Member

Ava Schoellnast, HDC Member

Christine Repella, HDC Member

Joe Quintero, HDC Member

Marla Decker, HDC Member

Ada Whitney, HDC Member

Julianne Cort, HDC Member

Michael Watson, HDC Member

Layton Lassiter, HDC Member

Stewart Mader, HDC Member

George DeStefano, HDC Member

Rachel Hodes, HDC Member

Antonio Grana, HDC Member

Don’t forget to visit the Patch Hoboken Facebook page. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com