GREEN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OUTLINES PLANS FOR POLITICAL REFORM
Matt Thieke for Governor
PO Box 1712
Brick, NJ 08723
Contact: Matt Thieke, 609-330-6552, mthieke7@yahoo.com
www.MattThieke.com

GREEN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OUTLINES PLANS FOR POLITICAL REFORM

Citing a "democracy deficit" in New Jersey, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Matt Thieke today announced his 7-point plan to bring wide ranging reforms to state government, focusing on campaign finance "pay to play" reform and making government more transparent.

Thieke issued the following statement: "The Green Party and I place a high value on grassroots democracy. The voters are eager for real reforms, unfortunately neither Jon Corzine nor Doug Forrester are willing or able to bring about these kinds of changes. That's because both of the major parties are corrupt machines that want to maintain the status quo. We Greens want to empower the citizens of New Jersey and believe that a lot more can be done to increase the level of democracy in our state. To that end, my campaign is proposing this 7-point plan:"

1. Clean Elections: Unlike the state's current version of public financing being tested in two legislative districts, we need a "clean" elections system that's closer to the laws in Maine and Arizona. One that makes it easier for candidates to qualify by drastically lowering the amount of money candidates must raise. In addition, third party and independent candidates must be given funding equal to the two major parties. A workable system of public financing would then be used for all elected offices: governor, legislature, freeholder, mayor etc. Besides 'clean' financing, we have to lower the dollar amount of allowable contributions to candidates and parties, and ban all contributions from companies doing government work, i.e. "pay to play".

2. Initiative and Referendum: When elected officials fail to pass needed reforms (see property taxes), the voters should have the right to place questions on the ballot. Half of the states have I&R. New Jersey should join them.

3. Term Limits: I believe that absolute power corrupts absolutely. If our governor is limited to 8 years in office, then state legislators should have limits too. I propose a limit of 10 years for members of the Assembly, and 10 years for state senators.

4. Ban politicians from holding multiple offices: Simply put, no politician should be able to hold more than one government job.

5. Proportional Representation: One problem with winner-take-all district representation is that minority views are under-represented. The major parties gerrymander legislative districts until most are "safe" for one party or the other. Instead of electing two people to represent one district, I propose having just one Assemblyperson elected per district, and electing the other 40 seats 'at-large' using proportional methods. If a party gets 10% of the votes, they get 10% of the at-large seats.

6. Elect more officials, appoint fewer: New Jersey appoints a far higher portion of its public officials than most states. Too many of these are patronage jobs used to reward partisan supporters. In most states, commissions are elected rather than appointed; in many states, planning boards are elected. Since the Green Party values grassroots democracy, we propose opening up our government by electing our state and county commissions (e.g. county improvement authorities, state port authorities, highway commissions, BPU, Pinelands commission) and municipal planning boards. By electing these positions, the media will pay more attention to the work of these agencies, and the public will know more about the decisions that are being made. In addition, we need an elected Attorney General whose independence from the governor will enable him or her to expose corruption within the administration. Current Attorney General Peter Harvey has been completely blind to the corruption in state politics.

7. Televised government: New Jersey needs its own version of C-SPAN. I'd like to see a second NJN-type channel devoted to televising committee hearings in the state legislature, county freeholder meetings, state authority meetings, school board meetings, etc. Democracy only works when the voters know what our elected officials are really doing.

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