All the Way
New Jersey's Clean Elections pilot program is such a positive step forward that the Trenton Times says "finish the job" with a few more improvements to make the law an even more dynamic tool to counter corruption.Among the changes the paper suggests are expanding the system to include primaries, and restructuring the rules for third-party candidates to allow them to be competitive: Clean Elections will enable independent-minded candidates to challenge the picks of the party bosses and to have at their disposal the same amount of money with which to mount a challenge at primary election time. In time, there will be elected officials less beholden to special-interest groups and party bosses, who don't want change. The other change they suggest is banning all elected officials from holding more than one public office at at time -- though this applies to New Jersey officials going forward, some legislators were "grandfathered" in after the law passed and the Times wants to do away with that exception.