Political tensions are running high over vacant seats at the state’s campaign finance watchdog. The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission canceled a meeting scheduled for Tuesday. The panel’s commissioners resigned March 30 in protest over certain parts of a controversial new law — the Election Transparency Act — which, among other things, allows the governor to appoint new commissioners and cut the commission’s statute of limitations on investigating campaign finance violations from 10 years to two.
Former commissioners Stephen Holden and Marguerite Simon attempted to rescind their resignation letters and called a meeting, saying the governor’s office hadn’t yet accepted their letters of resignation or appointed new members. The former commissioners say they wanted to look into the new statute of limitations in light of a report in the Bergen Record that more than $500,000 in expenses wasn’t properly disclosed by Senate President Nick Scutari. But the governor’s office stopped the meeting, emailing the members and accepting their resignation.
