About Common Cause New Jersey
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest.
For decades, Common Cause New Jersey, one of 36 state organizations, has served as the eyes, ears and voice of citizens in the fight for fair, honest and open government. Drawing our strength from our over 10,000 state members and online activists, we advocate for ethical conduct of elected officials, fight big money in politics, work to make government more accountable to all citizens, and help assure that elections are honest, inclusive and verifiable.
Some of our very recent landmark successes include:
- Common Cause New Jersey’s “Pay-to-Play” reform bill became state law, and has been touted by the New York Times and national campaign finance experts as the strongest in the nation. This law limits the trading of lucrative state public contracts for political campaign contributions.
- Common Cause New Jersey has been the driving force behind the restitution of the Office of the Public Advocate. Consumers and citizens throughout the State will now be protected from the unfair treatment of special interests.
- Common Cause New Jersey spearheaded the passage of numerous election reform laws in our state Legislature, all aimed at increasing voter participation and ensuring that every citizen’s vote is accurately counted.
- Our model reform ordinances, requiring developers to disclose their political contributions, limiting political contributions of public contractors, and opening the closed shop of government appointments have been passed in over 160 municipalities throughout the State!
Our agenda going forward includes:
- Changing how political campaigns are financed. When lawmakers don’t have to raise campaign dollars from special interests, but instead can draw from public funds, they can truly serve the public by passing laws which protect consumers, the environment, and the public purse. New Jersey’s successful public financing pilot program is due to be renewed and expanded.
- Legislation was introduced last year to expand and renew New Jersey’s successful pilot program. However, Assembly Speaker Roberts withdrew the legislation after concerns were raised about the constitutionality of matching funds in light of recent court decisions. Common Cause has led efforts to develop an innovative new model which capitalizes on small donations in place of matching funds, and Common Cause New Jersey supports amending and passing this legislation so that New Jersey legislators can continue this successful program that allows them to run their political races without taking special interest money.
- Stopping corruption in local politics. Our state “pay- to-play” legislation has been very successful – but it needs to be extended to local governments. Over the next three years, over $10 billion in federal stimulus dollars is scheduled to be spent in New Jersey. Much of it will be spent at the local level.
Yet we do not have an adequate system in place to ensure those monies are spent wisely and fairly. In fact, we do not have strong laws governing the kind of political contributions that government contractors can make to local politicians (in the hope of being rewarded by lucrative contracts.) Common Cause New Jersey has been working with its coalition partners to push the New Jersey state legislature to pass legislation which would prohibit government contractors from making political contributions to local elected officials.
- Bringing accurate and reliable voting machines to New Jersey. New Jersey voters currently cast ballots on computerized voting systems which have proven security risks and cannot be audited. In 2005, the New Jersey state legislature passed a law which required every voting system in New Jersey to produce a voter verifiable paper record. However, the state has not moved to upgrade its equipment. Instead, the mandate for the voting machine replacement has been continually pushed into the future and is only contingent upon receipt of specialized targeted funding.
Common Cause New Jersey will be working to pass legislations A3880 and S2673 which would require that New Jersey replace its voting systems with paper ballots and optical scan equipment. Paper ballots can be recounted and the count on the optical scan can be audited.
The goal of Common Cause New Jersey is to push back the influence of special interest money, while advancing the influence of citizens in setting our government's agenda.
Our strategy is to begin at a level of government still accessible to us - within our hometowns - and work from the bottom up. In order to accomplish this goal, we joined forces with The Center for Civic Responsibility to form the Citizens' Campaign.
The Citizens' Campaign is a statewide effort of private citizens working to get people to take a more active role in government.
New Jersey's political power lies in the hands of a few. Together, Campaign members from across the state are working to break up the current power structure in NJ, and redistribute the power back where it belongs ... in the hands of the citizens.
Contact Us
450 Main Street
Second Floor
Metuchen, NJ 08840
Phone: (732) 548-9798
Fax: (732) 548-9298