McHose's Idiotic Attempt to Score Special Interest Points Falls Flat

McHOSE'S IDIOTIC ATTEMPT TO SCORE SPECIAL INTEREST POINTS FALLS FLAT

Latest Attempt to Discredit Good Government Reforms Ensnared by Own Inaccuracies

(TRENTON) - In what can only be described as an hour-long endorsement of shoddy techniques, incomplete and inaccurate analyses, and glaring half-truths, Assembly Minority Deputy Conference Leader Alison Littell McHose (R-Sussex) today firmly positioned herself as a champion of the absurd and an obstructionist to good government reform during a press conference in opposition to New Jersey's Clean Elections program.

Embracing stupidity as the order of the day, McHose wholeheartedly endorsed the flawed methodologies and incomplete data compiled on the state's Clean Election program by the Center for Competitive Politics, a so-called non-partisan national organization that monitors and examines campaign finance and election issues.

FICTION:  The Clean Elections program was created and implemented behind closed doors.

FACT:  Assemblywoman Littell's own Republican staff and colleagues, Assemblywoman Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth) and Senator Bill Baroni (R-Mercer), are among the architects that helped craft the 2007 program in response to the findings of the New Jersey Citizens Clean Election Commission.

FICTION:  The study purports Clean Elections "...do not reduce candidates' reliance on organized interest groups for funding, as demonstrated by the significant over-representation of certain interest groups... among 'Clean Election' donors."

FACT:  The Center arrived at this conclusion after conducting a mail survey where respondents were asked to self-identify group affiliations from a provided list.  The Center admitted the survey provided no credible way to distinguish between individual donors with interest group affiliations and donations that were collected as part of an organized push by an interest group.

FICTION:  The study's findings are representative of the 2007 Clean Elections Pilot Program.

FACT:  The study did not include any information on Legislative District 37 - the third district participating in the program - due to limited finances and because Republican candidates did not qualify in that district.

FICTION:  Clean Elections unfairly handicaps Republican candidates, as a majority of Republican voters do not agree with, and refuse to participate in, taxpayer-funded elections.

FACT:  The 2007 Clean Elections Pilot Program saw six Republican candidates and one Libertarian candidate qualify for inclusion in the program.

If this is all that McHose - herself a Clean Elections candidate - is basing her opposition to the program on, then it's clear that she is more interested in the blind acceptance of special interest facts than she is in what will truly benefit her constituents and the people of the state.

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