Here’s why we enthusiastically endorse Steven Fulop for New Jersey Governor:

1. Primary elections

Candidate order: The bill to reform New Jersey’s primary ballots (A5116) moves New Jersey closer to fair primaries by eliminating the county line ballot and instituting an office block ballot design. However, candidate order for the primary ballot will still be determined by the County Clerk or Municipal Clerk drawing names out of a bin. This provides an advantage for the candidate drawn in first position and has resulted in some clerks drawing the party endorsed candidates for first position a statistically improbable number of times. I support the following reform that would ensure a more fair candidate order on the ballot:
Rotating the order of candidates for each office by voting precinct, so each candidate appears on the ballot first, second, and so forth, approximately the same number of times (see the recently introduced bill A5181) 

Slogans: I support prohibiting the use of slogans to express party endorsements on primary ballots. New Jersey is the only state that allows primary candidates to use slogans to indicate endorsements.

County clerks: I support making the county clerk a nonpartisan elected position.

2. Increasing transparency

Bill posting: I support requiring that bills be posted in written form at least 72 hours prior to committee discussion or vote, and that budget bills be posted at least 5 business days in advance of discussion or vote, to improve transparency in the legislative process.

Candidate information: I support making candidate information more readily available to voters by posting candidate bios in multiple languages on County Clerks’ and Secretary of State’s websites.

3. Anti-corruption measures

Pay-to-play: I support stronger pay-to-play prohibitions at both the state and municipal level, as was the standard prior to the implementation of the Election Transparency Act.

Commissions and boards: I support creating an independent non-partisan committee to identify and screen potential candidates for the most important commissions and boards (e.g., the Rutgers Board, State Board of Education, Port Authority Board, ELEC) in order to minimize political paybacks and diversify the pool of qualified candidates.

Senatorial Courtesy: I support prohibiting “Senatorial Courtesy”*. State level Senatorial Courtesy exists only in New Jersey and Texas.

*Senatorial courtesy is an unwritten rule practiced in the Senate of the U.S. state of New Jersey under which a State Senator can indefinitely block consideration of a nomination by the Governor of New Jersey for a gubernatorial nominee from the Senator’s home county, without being required to provide an explanation. Credit: wikipedia.

Campaign funding: I support the public funding of campaigns for all state-level elected offices (i.e., the state legislature and gubernatorial elections).

Public advocate: I support passing legislation to reinstate the statewide Office of the Public Advocate that was eliminated in 2010.

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In addition to the above 10 points that determined endorsement, we asked:

What (if any) changes would you have made in the Election Transparency Act (S2866), and why?

Answer: I was opposed to the bill from the beginning and was the earliest candidate for Governor to address this. I think there are several clear issues with the bill:
1) It strengthened the county party system with higher limits and this needs to change back to strengthen candidates as opposed to county parties.
2) It limited the look-back period for violations. I would change back to a longer period.
3) It created added obstacles for transparency with limited disclosure during an election period for IEs. This I would change as well.

What (if any) changes would you have made in the OPRA Reform Bill (S2930), and why?

Answer: Of the gubernatorial candidates, I was the earliest opponent of this bill when it was first introduced. The fee-shifting restrictions are an important change made by the legislature to gut OPRA that needs to be reinstated. Secondly, they restricted some of the types of documents that could be accessed and this too is a place that OPRA needs to be changed.

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More information about Mayor Steven Fulop:

Email: Steven@stevenfulop.com
Campaign website: www.stevenfulop.com
Social media: X: @StevenFulop, Bluesky: @stevenfulop.bsky.social, Instagram: Steven Fulop, Facebook: Steven Fulop
Party affiliation: Democratic party
Date of birth: 2/28/1977

Current Occupation: Mayor of Jersey City

Education:
BA – Binghamton University
Masters Business Administration – NYU
Masters Public Administration – Columbia University

Public/party service:
Councilman Jersey City 2005-2013
Mayor of Jersey City 2013 – Present