Legislation that would ban county constitutional officers from serving as political party heads in New Jersey is headed to the state’s full Senate.
The bill, introduced last week by state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, passed the state Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday after a half-hour of intense opposition from GOP leaders in Gopal’s home district.
An “obviation”
The legislation would prevent county clerks, sheriffs and deputies from serving as chairs, co-chairs and vice chairs of county committees within political parties.
Gopal called the bill “common sense” and an “override” because of the partisan implications political leadership could have on sensitive issues.
“When you go into the judiciary, you have sheriff’s deputies. When you handle an election matter, sheriff’s deputies are there. The secretaries run the elections and the surrogates, who are also affected by this bill, are also quasi-judges,” Gopal said. “I don’t understand how a rational person should think they could be political bosses.”
But as state Sen. Jon Bramnick pointed out, the roles are already partisan because many of New Jersey’s constitutional officers are elected and systems are already in place to ensure they don’t exert undue influence.
“This is not a nonpartisan election,” Bramnick said. “So if it’s not a nonpartisan election, you’re going to have people who are aligned with one party or the other, so I don’t think a bill like this is going to be able to take the politics out of people who are elected to office. If someone wants to make allegations but doesn’t ask for blanket legislation … step up your allegations against the individual. Either take it to the prosecutor or take it to the polls.”
Dale Florio, a prominent lobbyist who said he has represented county constitutional officials for more than two decades, called the bill “unnecessary” during Thursday’s session.
Attorney John McCann said he was attending to represent both the Constitutional Officers Association and the Sheriff’s Officers Association. McCann, who lost a congressional election in 2018, said he has spent the past three days considering constitutional challenges to Gopal’s bill.
“We could discuss the legal reliance that the Senate and the Assembly are relying on as to why the state considers this a constitutional bill,” McCann said. “The bill appears to implicate not only the freedom of political expression of constitutional officers. It certainly appears to implicate the freedom of association of the county committee members themselves.”
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“A clear abuse of power”
Also at the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting were Monmouth County Republican Vice Chairman Robert Nicastro, Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, Monmouth County Commissioner Director Thomas Arnone and Republican Senate candidate state Steve Dnistrian, who will challenge Gopal this fall.
They said the bill was an attempt by Gopal to settle a personal score against Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, who also serves as chairman of the Monmouth County Republican Party.
“This is a clear abuse of power and a blatant attempt to implement policies that depart from the principles of fair governance without considering, ultimately, the will of the people,” Nicastro said. “This is the worst of the worst … this is not the way we are supposed to do things. We beat our opponents at the ballot box, not through laws.”
Gopal defended it, saying Republican state Sen. Ed Durr and “other conservatives like gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea” have expressed support for the legislation.
“They tried to get Republican county chairs to sign a letter to oppose this bill and they were only able to get 11 out of 21 because, on the merits, this is a good bill,” Gopal said. “Politics is good. If you go on the street and ask any resident out there, say ‘hey, the county sheriff or the county clerk has to be the political boss of the county who decides who all the candidates are?’ “I would be surprised if any rational person said yes.”
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Golden said the bill is aimed at him and that “the crux of this particular bill is aimed at an individual, trying to trample on my right of association, my right of association in the first amendment of the Constitution”.
He also noted that Gopal had not sponsored this legislation when there were several positions on the Democratic side of the aisle.
“I am duly elected by the political party. I am duly elected by the voters of Monmouth County as sheriff and Vin Gopal is exacting revenge on the senate by abusing his power to target one person,” Golden said. “The merits proposed right now both in this chamber right now in the Senate as in the Assembly are unconstitutional. It violates freedom of association. It is discriminatory and retaliatory against a person.”
Golden also said that if the bill passes both chambers, he “will have no choice” but to “file legal action on an unconstitutional bill.”
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse.
E-mail: sobko@northjersey.com
