• Home
• Politics

TRENTON - Christoper J. Christie said if he is elected governor he would work for a total ban on paid dual-office holding while pushing for stricter disclosure requirements for elected officials and those appointed to the state's boards and commissions.

"We want to do the best we can to eliminate those conflicts of interest that cause people to have less faith in their government and also cause people to believe that decisions were not made in their best interests," Christie said.

He said corrupt officials should lose their entire pension, instead of receiving it for the time that they were not proved to be corrupt.

Christie, a Republican, also said he supports statewide initiatives and petitions, which would allow state residents to gather signatures to directly put legislation to a public vote, and called for amending the state constitution to ask voters every 10 years if a constitutional convention is needed.

He called the two measures a "safety valve" for voters and criticized state Republicans who promised similar measures a decade ago but failed to deliver.

Christie, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey, also said more state and local public records should be online and searchable. He singled out the state Department of Community Affairs, a $1.15 billion agency, saying some data is years out of date.

"This is not transparent government," he said. "This is government behind the curtain, and we need to bring government in front of the curtain."

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's spokesman, Robert Corrales, defended the governor's ethics record Thursday.

"Ending pay-to-play at every level of government, banning dual office holding, creating an independent state comptroller and establishing an all public-member state Ethics Commission are a few of many comprehensive ethics reform measures Gov. Corzine has taken to create a more open, honest and accountable government," Corrales said.

Talking with reporters on a conference call, Christie said dual-office holding is bad because "it creates inherent conflicts of interest, to be serving two masters at one time, sometimes more than two, some people have three public offices or public areas of public employment. We need to cut that back, and we need to do it now. We should not be grandfathering anyone into this process."

He said the ban would include non-elected positions. Only unpaid volunteers would be exempt.

The Legislature passed and Corzine signed a ban on multiple office holding in 2008 but grandfathered current officials. As a result, when new state legislators were sworn into office last year, the number of dual-office holders climbed from 17 to 19.

Others competing for the Republican gubernatorial nomination include Franklin Township, Somerset County, Mayor Brian D. Levine, former Bogota, Bergen County, Mayor Steve Lonegan, state Assemblyman Richard A. Merkt, R-Morris, Newark resident Dennis E. Knight and David D. Brown, an inventor and publisher of business directories. Voters go to the polls June 2.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

E-mail Derek Harper:

DHarper@pressofac.com

No comments have been posted. Be the first poster!

PressofAtlanticCity.com offers everyone the opportunity to comment on published stories. However, it is impractical for editors to screen all comments.
If you believe a comment is offensive, please click on the abuse-reporting link and your objection will be considered by an editor. We encourage participants to use their real names, but inoffensive screen names are acceptable. Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.
Please post responsibly. Do not post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy.
Be polite. Don’t hate. Users who don’t play by the rules may be blocked from participating.

View our full terms of service and privacy agreement

Click here to report a comment as abusive.

You must login to post a new comment