PolitickerNJ: Legal Expert Weighs in on Norcross’ Alleged County Coordination

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Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center, a public advocacy group that works through the courts to uphold existing campaign finance and voter registration laws, told PolitickerNJ that while machine politics may be distasteful, it is not illegal.

“As long as they’re doing the campaign work on their own time, not while being paid a salary by congress or by the county, then there wouldn’t be any issue,” Fischer said by phone. “You have to do it as a volunteer.

“My presumption would be that these individuals would be aware of those roles, and that they wouldn’t be conducting that activity on the taxpayer’s dime. But absent more evidence, you couldn’t really come to that conclusion.”

Though Law, a passionate supporter, has shied away from direct comparisons between his campaign and that of Bernie Sanders, Fischer said objections like Law’s to the primary process speak to a massive divide between the way voters understand it and the way it really operates.

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