Mount Laurel voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a new local law that severely restricts pay-to-play campaign donations to Township candidates, according to the unofficial tally.
"Yes" votes outnumbered "no" votes more than 6-to-1 in the special election, which grew out of a petition drive last year that called for a crackdown on contributions from professional firms that do business with the Township.
The count was 4,170 voting in favor of the new, local campaign-finance law compared with 652 voting against it at the polls and in mail voting, according to information provided by Meredith Tomczyk, the Township manager and clerk. She cautioned that these are the draft results and Burlington County will release the official results after all mail-in ballots are counted.
"With 86.5% percent of the votes cast supporting this ordinance, the Mount Laurel (Township) Council has proven that they are out of touch with their own constituents," one of the petition drive organizers, Andy Gaus, said Tuesday night in a statement. "The Council had the chance to pass this ordinance and save the Mount Laurel taxpayers $150,000 in expenses" for the special election.
Last year's petition drive, which yielded 1,373 certified signatures, was led by a group of local Republicans. Democrats hold every seat on the Township Council and did not discuss or consider adopting the proposed law. By default, that sent the question to voters in an election.
A deadline for the general election last November was missed, so Tuesday's special election — at a cost of as much as $150,000 — was necessary.Â
Besides Gaus, the all-Republican Committee of Petitioners that directed the petition drive was made up of John Francescone, Kelly Gale, Randy Reitz and Patrick Appolonia.Â
"This ordinance would limit the ability of those seeking to perform work or business for the Township of Mount Laurel to contribute to political parties running for election in Mount Laurel," the petition that forced the election stated. "The limits on donations to candidates for Township Council or their affiliates will help avoid improper influence in local elections. Entities that donate above the limits will be unable to gain municipal contracts in Mount Laurel Township."
At stake for the professional firms are millions of tax dollars paid for consulting or serving in roles as the official solicitors, engineers or planners for the Township or its planning and zoning boards.
And at stake for candidates from any party is no longer attracting relatively large campaign donations from the firms that hope to get Township contracts.
In 2021, through September, Mount Laurel paid the firms a total of nearly $2.26 million — up from full-year totals of $1.94 million in 2020 and $2.07 million in 2019, according to summaries of Township purchase orders provided to 70and73.com under an Open Public Record Act (OPRA) request.
State election law limits individual contributions to a candidate's campaign committee to $2,600 for each election. A corporation, association, union or group also is limited to $2,600. However, the ceiling rises for donations to political committees ($7,200) and county political party committees ($37,000).
The proposed Mount Laurel law clamps down even more on the annual contributions of individuals who are professional business entities or vendors to $300 each for mayoral or council candidates or a township party committee and $500 to a Burlington County party committee or a PAC. The limits apply for political candidates of any party.
» READ MORE: The 'shadowy' opposition to the new Mount Laurel law.
» READ MORE: How much do Mount Laurel professional firms get paid?
