Welcome news from New Jersey as effort to muzzle watchdog agencies fails | Editorial
Pushback against a proposed plan to gut the powers of the state comptroller and undermine the investigators charged with protecting the public purse may show that Garden State voters have had enough.
For generations, New Jersey and political corruption have sometimes seemed to go hand in hand. From the late ‘70s Abscam bribery scandal to the recent conviction of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who was accused of taking gifts in the form of gold bars, the Garden State’s reputation has led it to be labeled “The State of Honest Graft.”
Yet there are welcome signs the tide is turning.
The recent decision not to move forward with a proposed plan to gut the powers of the state comptroller and undermine the investigators charged with protecting the public purse may be an indication that voters have had enough of the nonsense, and that elected officials may no longer feel as comfortable pushing the (cash-stuffed) envelope.
At first, it seemed like it may turn out to be a typical Jersey stitch-up job.
Earlier this month, State Senate President Nicholas Scutari proposed legislation that would strip crucial oversight powers from the office of Acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh, including the ability to issue subpoenas — a move that would essentially make cooperation with comptroller investigations purely voluntary.
Scutari’s bill — introduced in the dead of night shortly before Thanksgiving — would not only have placed the comptroller’s watchdog power in the hands of the State Commission of Investigation, but it would also have given the commission the authority to investigate the office of State Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
Both Walsh and Platkin have made themselves thorns in the side of the state’s biggest special interests.
Last year, Platkin charged George Norcross, one of the state’s biggest power brokers, with racketeering; those charges were dismissed in February.
Walsh’s office has scrutinized a laundry list of interest groups that would benefit from diminishing his office. Insurers, local governments, police departments, public sector unions, nursing homes — Walsh was willing to hold accountable anyone, from any party, who was misusing public funds.
Like Walsh, Platkin has expressed few concerns about possibly stepping on toes. Beyond his audacious indictment of Norcross, he also declined to support the state’s traditional “party line” ballot system, which advantaged candidates with establishment support in primaries. Platkin called the system unconstitutional, and then-U.S. Rep. Andy Kim wound up winning a legal challenge to the system that propelled him to victory in last year’s race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Menendez.
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Outgoing New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy deserves credit for appointing both Walsh and Platkin, but for those committed to continuing the state’s bad old ways, the logical thing to do would be to gut their power — an effort that initially looked like it might succeed.
Even with little public support, the bill advanced through a committee hearing. Platkin, Walsh, and Kim all attended the hearing and testified against the measure, but the committee chair, State Sen. James Beach of Camden County, kept Platkin and Kim waiting for more than four hours.
Then, last week, Scutari abandoned his efforts. At least for now.
When this Board interviewed Kim during his run for the U.S. Senate, he acknowledged New Jersey’s checkered history while promising that things are changing. The failure of this attempt to muzzle two of the state’s watchdogs are a step in the right direction.