Citizen's Campaign

The goal of Common Cause New Jersey is to push back the influence of special interest money, while advancing the influence of citizens in setting our government's agenda. Our strategy is to begin at a level of government still accessible to us - within our hometowns - and work from the bottom up. In order to accomplish this goal, we joined forces with The Center for Civic Responsibility to form the Citizens' Campaign. The Citizens' Campaign is a statewide effort of private citizens working to get people to take a more active role in government. New Jersey's political power lies in the hands of a few. Together, Campaign members from across the state are working to break up the current power structure in NJ, and redistribute the power back where it belongs ... in the hands of the citizens.

Public Contracting "Pay-to-Play" Reform Currently, CCNJ is working towards the passage of comprehensive pay-to-play reform, for the municipal, county, and state levels of government. Over the past 4 years, hundreds of citizens in over 60 municipalities and 1 county have contributed to the passage of pay-to-play reform laws through petition drives or presentations to their town councils. While these are significant achievements, we feel that one comprehensive set of regulations outlining the public contracting procedures for all levels of government would be beneficial - rather than all 566 municipalities and 21 counties having their own set of pay-to-play standards. For information on the recent Common Cause NJ achievements with regards to pay-to-play reform, including the passage of the Local Pay-to-Play Reform Law ("Enabling Legislation"), click here.