SENATE STATE GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 993

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: OCTOBER 7, 1996

      The Senate State Government Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 993.

      The purpose of this bill is to provide that whenever the selection of a chairman of the county committee of a political party is not by the unanimous consent of the members of that committee but is instead to be decided by an election contest involving two or more candidates, the vote in that election shall be by secret ballot.

      The bill also amends R.S.19:5-3 to eliminate the requirement that members and officers of county committees of political parties shall serve one-year terms and to make clear that notice of the annual meetings of such committees must be provided by the chairmen thereof to each member and member-elect of those committees.

      These latter changes have been made to R.S.19:5-3 to conform it to a decision of the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, in a consent order which invalidated part of the statute. The State court's action was based on Eu v. San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee, 109 S. Ct. 1013 (1989) in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated, on First Amendment grounds, certain California laws regulating the internal affairs of political parties.