TRENTON August 20th—Chris Daggett, independent candidate for Governor, today detailed a comprehensive plan to tighten ethics rules and to reform government, including eliminating pension and health care benefits for part-time elected officials and expanding pay-to-play rules for all levels of government, including school boards. ( Read Chris Daggett’s Speech and the Ethics Policy Paper)

Besides eliminating perks for part-time officials, Daggett’s platform for overhauling ethics, government and campaign laws calls for the establishment of a luxury tax to discourage deep-pocketed candidates from using their own money to buy elections.

“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled candidates can spend as much as they want in Buckley v. Valeo, but like the New York Yankees, they should pay a luxury tax if they exceed the public financing limit by two-fold. Why should our elections be more one-sided than the American League pennant race?’’ Daggett said.

The reform platform aims to restore public confidence in government and elected officials by dealing with the abuses voters have witnessed the past several years in both Republican and Democratic administrations. The public’s trust in government also has been virtually crushed by the recent wave of corruption arrests, Daggett said.

“Fixing New Jerseys corrupt system isn’t just a matter of cracking down on illegal conduct, but also the corruption that takes place under the cover of law,’’ he said. ‘’Dual office-holding, double-dipping on pension benefits, and awarding no-bid contracts to political friends all contribute to rising government spending. It has to stop.’’

In addition to ending pension and health care benefits for part-time elected officials and other part-time political appointees, Daggett also wants pensions for public employees to be calculated based on a 10 year-average salary, rather than the highest three years. He also would reduce salaries of lawmakers who earn money from other taxpayer-funded jobs by the amount of days spent in Trenton.

A critical component of the reform package is to limit the pernicious influence of money in politics and government. Daggett would move to limit legislative leadership political action committees by restricting legal contributions to match those of individual candidates to reduce the sway of special interests in setting the agenda in the Statehouse.

Daggett also plans to push to expand pay-to-play rules to all levels of government, including school boards and said the state should standardize those rules.

In an effort to increase the transparency of campaign contributions, Daggett said he would require all contributions in the election process to candidates, party organizations and political action committees to be posted online within 24 hours on a site to be set up by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.

Daggett said he also would push for passage of a law imposing a one-year mandatory minimum prison term for those convicted of corruption—both public officials and those who attempt to bribe them. He also plans to push for a law that would strip officials convicted of corruption of their public sector pensions and allowing judges to impose restitution.

Daggett Speech on Ethics in NJ Politics

Good afternoon.

Today, I am unveiling my proposals for ethics, government and campaign reform.

Last week’s Quinnipiac Poll showed that 93 percent of New Jerseyans believe political corruption is a serious problem. But the corruption of New Jersey’s political system goes far beyond the bribery cases splashed across our TV screens last month. It is ingrained in – and fed by – the two-party system.

Former Governor Brendan Byrne often has said, “If you live in New Jersey and are not getting something for nothing, you’re not getting your fair share.” It’s meant to be a joke, but it is not funny. It’s this attitude that is at the heart of many of New Jersey’s problems.

Fixing New Jersey’s corrupt system isn’t just a matter of cracking down on illegal conduct, but also the corruption that takes place under the cover of law.

This corruption under the cover of law exists in the patronage handed out by the two parties, and by the decisions they make that put party interests ahead of the needs of the people they so fervently claim to represent.

Corruption under the cover of law exists in the dual officeholders who shortchange both public entities that employ them. It also exists in the conflicts of interest that are not reported. And, it exists in the high-salaried jobs given to party hacks at the end of their careers to jack up their pensions while the taxpayers who pay their salaries struggle to hold onto their homes.

Both of my opponents have spent a lot of time talking about ethics and corruption, but their actions make them hypocrites. They are good examples of how money corrupts politics, and how – too often – our government, and top government positions, are for sale.

It is a system that enabled a wealthy bond trader from Goldman Sachs to buy a new career, first in the United States Senate, then as governor, first by pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into county Democratic organizations, and later by pouring tens of millions of dollars into his campaigns.

It is also a system that allowed a one-term freeholder from Morris County who had sued his fellow Republican officeholders, who had been repudiated by his own party, and who had run last in the GOP primary when he sought reelection, to buy himself a new career as U.S. Attorney by raising a lot of money for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign.

Today, both are loudly claiming to be proponents of ethics reform, complying with the legal campaign contribution limits here in New Jersey while taking full advantage of unregulated political action committees set up in Washington by the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association. Both campaigns are standing by silently while these national organizations are using funds from large donations by special interest groups to rip apart the opposing candidates with multi-million-dollar advertising buys.

Similarly, while individual state legislators are bound by contribution limits, the New Jersey State Senate and Assembly Democratic and Republican leadership PAC’s accept large contributions from special interest groups seeking to influence whether legislation they favor or oppose gets posted for a vote.

We need to punish the corrupt, make public officials live like the rest of us, limit the pernicious influence of money over policy, and begin to restore democracy to our political system.

To fix this broken system, a number of new measures need to be put in place.

It is time to put an end to dual office-holding because elected officials cannot simultaneously represent two sets of constituents. It is a built-in conflict of interest. A legislator who is a mayor is not representing the interests of all the citizens of his district when he seeks special treatment for his city, but he is not doing his job as mayor if he puts the overall interest of the district and the state first.

Legislators who receive two public salaries should have their salaries reduced on a per diem basis by their other public sector employer for the days they put in at the Statehouse.

It is also time to put an end to pensions and free health care for part-time elected officials. And, we must put an end to pensions and free health care for part-time legislative aides and other political appointees who get rewarded by their bosses in the last three years of employment with a six-figure salary and a pension that’s twice as high as many full time public employees with 30 years of service.

Pensions vest after 10 years – pension benefits should be based on an average of 10 years of salaries, not on the highest paid three years.

We should place a three-year ban on elected officials engaging in lobbying or in obtaining government contracts after leaving office.

We should ban public consulting contracts for state legislators within their districts.

We need to limit the impact of the legislative leadership political action committees and the state and county party committees by establishing the same campaign contribution limits for those organizations as for individual candidates. This would help restore the independence of the legislature by reducing the ability of legislative leaders to blackmail individual lawmakers by threatening to withhold large campaign warchests. We should simultaneously put an end to the practice of “wheeling” contributions from PAC to PAC.

We support efforts by the Citizen’s Campaign and its leader, Harry Pozycki, to extend from municipalities to state and county government the posting of commission and board openings, and we should require municipal party organizations to join county parties in adopting by-laws that further the democratic rights of citizens to participate in the political process.

We should join states like Arizona and Iowa in adding competitiveness as a criterion to consider in New Jersey’s legislative and congressional redistricting commissions in the remapping process that will follow the 2010 Census. It is a travesty of democracy that so much gerrymandering is done to limit competition in legislative and congressional races.

We should make the impact of campaign contributions as transparent as possible by requiring all contributions not just to candidates but also to party organizations and other PACs as well to be posted online at the state Election Law Enforcement Commission within 24 hours.

We should expand pay-to-play rules to all levels of government, including school boards, and we should standardize those rules.

Finally, we need to do something about the practice of buying elections. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that limits on campaign spending by wealthy individuals would violate free speech. But it may very well be constitutional to impose a “luxury tax” on campaign expenditures above a certain level, similar to the way Major League Baseball imposes a “luxury tax” that requires wealthy ball clubs with payrolls above a certain level to contribute to less well-funded teams.

Why should our election for governor be more one-sided than a baseball pennant race? I would suggest a “luxury tax” of 33 percent to kick in at two times the public financing limit, with the receipts going to other candidates in the race proportionate to the amount of money they have raised.

In summary, it is time to restore New Jersey’s tarnished image by providing harsher penalties for convicted public officials and others who break the law trying to influence them, and by ending all of the opportunities for people to game the system to get something for nothing.

I welcome your questions.