Bill > A251

Introduced Session

This bill requires a candidate for or the holder of any elective public office in this State to file a certificate of organization of a legal defense fund with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) if the candidate or officeholder receives a contribution for the purpose of defraying legal expenses resulting from pending or anticipated criminal charges. The candidate or officeholder must also designate a bank authorized by law to transact business in this State as a depository for the fund and file with ELEC, at three month intervals, a report of all transactions of the fund, including the name, address, occupation and employer of each individual making a contribution, and of the recipient of each expenditure. No contributions to the fund by an individual, committee, group, organization, corporation or business entity of any kind may be greater than the amount of money or other thing of value that may be contributed per calendar year to a candidate for public office pursuant to the provisions of "The New Jersey Campaign Contributions and Expenditures Reporting Act" (N.J.S.A.19:44A-1 et seq.). The bill would not apply to expenditures of the candidate's or officeholder's own funds or to contributions thereto from the candidate's or officeholder's spouse, partner in a civil union, domestic partner, children, siblings, or parents. The bill also provides that its provisions would not be construed as authorizing the acceptance by a candidate or an officeholder of an amount which exceeds the limit on the amount of any gift that may be accepted by the candidate or officeholder as prescribed by any other statute, regulation, executive order, ordinance, resolution, or code of ethics. Under the bill, a contribution to the legal defense fund of a candidate or officeholder will be considered a contribution to the candidate committee of the candidate or officeholder for the purposes of the "pay to play" laws of the State.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Wayne DeAngelo (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 01/14/2020)