Outside Money in Lawrence Politics

It’s no surprise to see payback for the faithful donors come out of taxpayers wallets “Council OKs pay hikes for exempt workers.” March 5, 2014.  Consider that the Democrat candidates that won election in Lawrence Township last November raised more than 71% of their contributions from outside Labor Groups and Political Action Committees.

According to the Ledger article “Candidates reports list funding, spending in campaign” Dec 18, 2013, based on ELEC reports, out of the $23,000 raised by the Democrats, $6,000 was “transferred from a prior campaign.”  Of the $17,000 remaining, $12,200 came in from Trenton and Monroe based Labor Unions and Political Action Committees, including a whopping $8,200 from the New Jersey State Laborers PAC!

So it’s completely logical that within 10 weeks of taking office, this same group of Democrats enacted an ordinance giving out discretionary raises to its exempt employees, considering the staggering amount of outside money coming in from Labor groups and Labor PACs.

I suppose this doesn't surprise many people who are familiar with the amount of money thrown at elections these days.  But what should disgust Lawrence residents is the hypocrisy displayed by its leadership.  To wit: on October 16, 2012 Lawrence Town Council (all Democrats) voted unanimously to support a call for a constitutional amendment overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United ruling, because it allowed for organizations to raise money and influence elections through PAC's.  In other words, they unanimously voted to limit funding from outside organizations, but had no issues accepting more than 7 out of every 10 dollars raised to get elected from outside groups.  A prime example of Leadership via hypocrisy.  Taxpayers be damned.

For the record, the Republican candidates received 15% of their contributions from outside Lawrence and only 9% from any outside organization.

Max Ramos

Lawrence Township