Court Opinion

ID: 9649445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:53:41.551719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:10.841496
License: Public Domain

STEIN, J.,
dissenting.
Although this case nominally involves a question of statutory construction, the underlying issue is the power of the county committee of a political party to designate candidates for inclusion on the general election ballot. In my view, the power accorded to the county committee by the majority opinion far exceeds that contemplated by the statutes governing the conduct of elections.
The majority clearly and accurately frames the issue of statutory interpretation. In the case of elections for municipal office, the county committee of a political party in the municipality is authorized to select a replacement candidate “in the event of a vacancy * * * among candidates nominated at prima*273ries.” N.J.S.A. 19:13-20. As explained by the majority, the question is whether there was such a “vacancy” in this case. The Gloucester County Clerk argues that only one candidate was nominated in the Democratic primary elections, and that the party’s failure to nominate a second council candidate in the primary election does not create a “vacancy” to be filled by the ten members of the Democratic county committee in the Borough of Clayton.1 The majority opinion concludes that the write-in votes, although insufficient in number to nominate a candidate in the primary election, nevertheless constituted a “nomination” leaving a “vacancy” among candidates “nominated” at the primary election.
The validity of the majority’s analysis can best be measured in the context of the statutory mechanism for the selection of candidates for inclusion on the general election ballot. Except for electors of the president or vice-president, who are nominated by the political parties at their state conventions, general-election candidates for all public offices are to be nominated either directly by petition or at the primary election that precedes the general election. N.J.S.A. 19:13-1. Nomination by direct petition is the mechanism by which candidates who are unaffiliated with the major political parties may place their names on the general-election ballot. N.J.S.A. 19:13-3 to -13. An individual seeking a place on the general-election ballot as a nominee of a major political party follows a different course. These candidates must earn the advantages accruing from party designation on the general election ballot by winning the party nomination in a primary election, in which the voters are members of that political party. N.J.S.A. 19:23-46.
*274In Stevenson v. Gilfert, 13 N.J 496 (1953), Justice Jacobs explained the historical background of the primary election process, attributing its establishment to widespread dissatisfaction with the prior practice of nomination by party conventions:
In the [Ray v.] Blair [343 U.S. 214, 72 S.Ct. 654, 96 L.Ed. 894] case Justice Reed in viewing the matter from its national aspect, properly noted that political parties weré not bom with the Republic but were created by necessity; that originally nominees for public office were designated by self-appointed individuals; that this system was early succeeded by party conventions; and that because of public dissatisfaction with the political manipulation of conventions they have been largely superseded by direct party primaries. Our own state history has followed the same course. Prior to 1789 we had no statewide parties although there were county and sectional alignments. Nominations for office could readily be made by individuals and groups of individuals. However, following the first Congressional elections statewide political parties came into full being, conventions were held for the selection of party candidates, and party slates began to appear. Throughout most of the 19th Century party candidates were selected at conventions which were conducted without any state regulation whatever. In 1878 our Legislature passed its first enactments which related to party primaries and conventions. L. 1878, cc. 113, 204; Boots, The Direct Primary in New Jersey (1917), 15. There were later enactments and in 1898 a comprehensive revision of the election laws was adopted; they embodied only relatively minor provisions bearing upon primaries and conventions. However, in 1903 the Legislature adopted a supplement (L. 1903, c. 248), which dealt extensively with the subject and launched our now long-standing state policy of having fully regulated closed primaries. Indeed, New Jersey has been described as “one of the most tightly closed of the closed primary states.” [Id. at 498-99 (quoting Merriam and Overarcher, Primary Elections, 71 (1928)).]
Our statutes governing primary elections provide for elections at public expense, with detailed requirements governing the petitions of nomination, voter registry lists, official ballots, and regulation of the primary election process to insure that only voters affiliated with the political party may vote in the primary. The statute expressly prohibits any state, county, or municipal committee of a political party from endorsing any candidates seeking that party’s nomination prior to the primary election. N.J.S.A. 19:34-52. See Gillen v. Sheil, 174 N.J.Super. 386, 389-90 (Law Div.1980); Cavanagh v. Morris County Democratic Comm., 121 N.J.Super. 430 (Ch.Div.1972). These statutes demonstrate
*275full legislative recognition that primary elections were no longer matters of private concern to be dealt with by party managers in any manner they chose but, on the contrary, were of public concern and required regulation in the public interest. [Stevenson v. Gilfert, supra, 13 N.J. at 500 (citing Wene v. Meyner, 13 N.J. 185, 192 (1953)).]
Because of the public interest in primary elections free from domination by the party hierarchy, the law requires that a primary candidate’s petition for nomination be signed by a prescribed minimum number of party members. In the case of candidates for municipal office, the minimum number is 5% of the total votes cast at that party’s last preceding primary election held for party candidates for the General Assembly. N.J.S.A. 19:23-8. The very same standard — 5% of votes cast at the last primary for General Assembly candidates — prescribes the minimum number of votes that a write-in candidate in a primary election must receive in order to be the party’s nominee on the general election ballot. Such legislative controls on the primary election process are obviously intended to discourage domination of the primary process by the party machinery and to encourage a broad-based participation in the primary election by party members.
The role of the party organization in the primary election is narrow indeed. In the event a vacancy occurs among candidates nominated in the statutorily-prescribed primary election process, the legislature has authorized the county committee of the party to fill the vacancy. Presumably, this concession to the party organization reflects a legislative determination that if a vacancy occurs after nominees have been selected in a broad-based primary election, the public interest is not then disserved if the vacancy is filled by party officials.
Against this legislative background, the majority decision’s approval of candidate selection by party officials in this case, where the designated candidate is not replacing a nominee duly elected in the primary election, is plainly incompatible with the underlying purposes of the primary election law. The majority bases its support for its conclusion on two grounds. First, it *276relies on a strained construction of the word “nominated” in N.J.S.A. 19:13-20, which authorizes party officials to select a replacement candidate “[i]n the event of a vacancy, howsoever caused, among candidates nominated at primaries * * *.” (Emphasis added.).
The majority concludes that the word “nominated”
was not intended to refer exclusively to the gaining of a sufficient number of votes — either write-ins or those for a candidate named by the petition process— to permit the placing of a particular candidate’s name on the general election ballot. It was intended to refer as well to the process by which a name is, by the write-in process, offered or proposed for a place on the ballot. [Ante at 268.]
Since the main purpose of the strict regulation of primary elections is to assure that the “candidates nominated at primaries” reflect the preference of the party’s eligible voters, the majority’s holding that a person proposed for a place on the ballot is the equivalent of a nominated candidate appears to be irreconcilable with the legislative scheme.
The other basis for the majority’s conclusion is a reference in the Press Release from the Office of the Governor issued contemporaneously with the signing of chapter 264 of the Laws of 1981. As noted in the majority opinion, that statute, codified at N.J.S.A. 19:14-2.1, “specifies the minimum number of votes required before a write-in candidate at the primary election can have his name placed on the general election ballot.” Ante at 269. The Press Release expresses the opinion, unattributed to any identified source, that “the county committee would select the nominee” if a candidate does not attain the requisite number of write-in votes. This observation in the Press Release was not related to the statute signed by the Governor, but rather to the interpretation of the vacancy statute first enacted some fifty years earlier. Without in any way denigrating the judgment or insight into the legislative process possessed by those who prepare press releases in the Governor’s Office, it is evident that this press release, to the extent that it purports to interpret a fifty-year-old law, does not constitute part of the legislative history that could inform our interpretation of the *277vacancy statute. At most, it may reflect the speculation of members of the Governor’s staff as to the likely judicial interpretation of the vacancy statute. It clearly is entitled to little weight in the matter before us.
The danger of the result reached by the majority is that it may afford party officials increased influence in selecting candidates for local elections. Although political parties may not endorse candidates before the primary elections, party leaders frequently encourage individuals to circulate petitions and seek nomination in their party’s primary election. The majority’s holding suggests that the party’s role in designating general-election candidates could be enhanced if no candidates are solicited to file petitions for positions on the primary ballot. As long as any candidate receives at least one write-in vote in the primary election — presumably far short of the number required — that individual’s insufficient number of write-in votes would create a vacancy among “candidates nominated at primaries,” triggering the power of the county committee to designate its own choice. Thus, this decision may remove the incentive for a political party to encourage individuals to participate in primary elections. Rather than run the risk of a broad-based primary in which the nominee may be hostile to the party organization, a party hierarchy can achieve the power to designate the party’s nominee by the expedient casting of a handful of write-in votes in the primary election.
In my view, the majority’s decision is inconsistent with the underlying objectives of our primary election laws, which seek to encourage broad participation by party members in the process by which a party’s candidates for the general election are chosen. For the reasons stated, I dissent from the majority’s disposition of this appeal.
For reversal — Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, POLLOCK and GARIBALDI — 5.
For affirmance — Justice STEIN — 1.

 The record does not disclose how many of the ten Democratic county committee members attended the meeting to fill the vacancy, whether a quorum was present, or the number of votes cast. The record reveals only that a meeting was held and that petitioner was selected by a “unanimous voice vote.”