Describes experiences in six states, including New Jersey’s pilot projects
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – When New Jersey initiated a Clean Elections program in 2005, surveys showed that citizens knew little about this campaign reform effort. When candidates wanted to participate in the program, they found they had to explain it to voters first.The uncertainty led to a project to explain the Clean Elections concept. Now that effort has resulted in a book, available in print and on the website of Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics (www.eagleton.rutgers.edu). Clean Elections: Public Financing in Six States, Including New Jersey’s Pilot Projects was introduced at the State House in Trenton today by Ingrid W. Reed, director of Eagleton’s New Jersey Project. The book presents a picture of Clean Elections programs in six states and is designed as a resource as the New Jersey Legislature considers instituting a new version of the program.
Reed explained, “We wanted to help people understand Clean Elections by focusing on four distinct aspects of this relatively new campaign finance reform effort.” They are:
- Clean Elections in the ongoing history of our country’s campaign finance reform efforts
- The experiences of six states – Maine, Arizona, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey – describing common components and differences
- The political activity that resulted in the creation of Clean Election programs in the six states and, in some cases, their lack of success
- The unique approach of New Jersey’s two pilot projects, providing an in-depth look at each of the two efforts.
Reed pointed out that Eagleton faced challenges in learning about other Clean Election programs, so the book will be useful to citizens and officials in other states who are considering their own programs and are interested in New Jersey’s pilot projects.
The Clean Elections book is the work of two researchers. Lead author Benjamin Brickner, a student at Columbia Law School and resident of Lawrenceville, N.J., wrote the first version as a senior thesis at Cornell University. Naomi Mueller of North Brunswick, N.J., a former journalist, worked with Brickner to complete the project as an Eagleton Fellow and graduate student at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.
The book is available in hard copy and on Eagleton’s website, www.eagleton.rutgers.edu, under the New Jersey Project as a searchable, easy-to-navigate file with hyperlinked citations. It will be updated online as new information about Clean Elections becomes available.
The Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, explores state and national politics through research, education and public service, linking the study of politics with its day-to-day practice. The institute focuses attention on how contemporary political systems work, how they change, and how they might work better.
Media Contact: Ingrid Reed
732-932-9384, ext. 232
E-mail: ireed@rci.rutgers.edu