Tracing Gray Money in NJ Politics: County-by-County Insights
Wikipedia offers a concise definition of a Political Action Committee (PAC): “In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.” One good definition of gray money comes from the Brennan Center for Justice: What causes...
The “Work Together” Group’s Approach to Committee Appointments and the Berkeley Heights BOE
With elections over, and a new Board of Education to be sworn in at the beginning of the year, we should take a look at what happened last year at this time. It would be nice to think we could avoid some of the same mistakes, but based on the November 14th meeting it appears we’re in for another rough...
Final Public Hearing on Ballot Design Reform: Join the Fight for Fair Elections in NJ
The Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design is hosting its last public hearing on Monday, December 2, at 6:00 PM via Zoom. This hearing is a critical opportunity for individuals and groups to voice support for legislation that enacts the terms of Judge Quraishi’s order and ensures the permanent adoption of office block ballots for both political parties in future...
The Story of Politics, Money and Berkeley Heights in Twelve Images
This week, we shared snapshots on our socials highlighting the campaign contributions made by vendors alongside the payments they received from the town for their services. We encourage residents to start paying closer attention to this critical information, especially in light of New Jersey’s recent rollback of campaign finance reforms, which takes transparency back to the dark ages. These special interests...
A Small Step Forward
For the first time in a long time I am feeling hopeful. In my 15+ years as a BH resident, I was happy to experience the most civilized campaign season I can remember. There was no public mud-slinging, bashing, or trash-talking of the opposing candidates. The concession letter from Tom and Steve was classy, honorable, and heartfelt. This is Berkeley...
Candidate Remarks During Comment Portion of 09/14/2023 BOE Meeting
The clip below includes remarks from Natasha Joly and Sai Akiri during the comments portion of the 09/14/2023 BOE Meeting. Natasha discussed the following items: Initiatives connected to targets on proficiencies emailed to parents from the Superintendent Building Thinking Classroom Courtesy Busing Lack of Board Oversight on Budget Sai discussed the following items: Lack of comparisons on cohorts and strategies...
Mayor Devanney Clarifies CMS Field Discussion Between Rec Department and BOE
We will be posting about the BOE Agenda later today but I wanted to share this update. I received clarification from Mayor Devanney regarding the CMS/BOE Field discussions in response to an email I sent the Town Council and BOE surrounding the process on this issue. 2023 Candidates for both bodies were cc’d on the email. This article will be...
Questions to The BOE Candidates – Question 1
First in a Series of Questions to the 2023 Berkeley Heights, NJ BOE Candidates Two Candidates Running for Two Seats Please provide residents with your qualifications for the BOE (education, experience) and how you feel this background will benefit our community on the BOE. Please provide (at least) two very specific policy positions you plan to introduce or support during...
Questions To The Town Council Candidates – Question 3
Third in a Series of Questions to the 2023 Berkeley Heights, NJ Town Council Candidates Flooding has been a topic in town for some time and is often tied to the issue of over development which all the candidates have spoken to more recently. This question has a few parts: (1) Do you agree that flooding in Berkeley Heights is...
BHCW 08/07/2023 Newsletter
What’s Important to Know About Berkeley Heights This Week… Online Version PDF Version See All Newsletters
nj21st.com (with the exception of featured images and logo) is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
