UPDATED: 24 FEB 2023 04:57 PM EST
An attorney for Jeff Brindle, the longtime executive director of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, claims that a late amendment inserted into a campaign finance bill to give the governor new powers over the agency is the culmination of an attempt by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration to force him out of the job over an alleged anti-gay remark.
“There’s been efforts by the governor and his staff for several months to force Jeff Brindle’s resignation as executive director of ELEC,” said Bruce Afran, an attorney for Brindle.
According to Afran, Brindle was summoned to a meeting in the governor’s office on Nov. 1 with Murphy chief of staff George Helmy, Chief Counsel Parimal Garg and Chief Ethics Officer Dominic Rota.
“They immediately demanded his resignation that day, allegedly on the grounds that he had made an ‘anti-gay’ remark,” Afran said. “They refused to produce any documentation of the remark, although they claimed they had an email. They said if he did not resign immediately that afternoon, they would publicize his remark.”
The Murphy administration staffers then handed Brindle his own resignation letter, written on the governor’s office letterhead, according to Afran. Afran provided POLITICO with the letter.
Murphy spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna denied that the administration threatened to publicize the remark but declined to go into detail about the allegations.
However, two Murphy administration officials who declined to speak publicly about the allegation said Brindle wrote to another ELEC staffer in response to an emailed communication about National Coming Out Day. According to the sources, Brindle emailed the staffer asking if she was coming out and lamented that employees couldn’t celebrate the birthdays of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln but could celebrate people coming out.
Afran said he does believe that email exists but characterized it as “a political opinion by somebody, not an example of anti-gay bias.”
Afran said that the Murphy administration officials did not consult ELEC’s commissioners, who have authority over Brindle, on the specific allegation. Two weeks after the first meeting, Afran said, Rota called ELEC’s chair, Eric Jaso, and said he should fire Brindle, “this time because of an alleged anti-gay and an alleged racist remark.”
“He followed the phone call with an emailed demand. The commissioners declined to take action because no evidence was provided,” Afran said.
A phone message left with Jaso’s law office was not immediately returned.
Then, according to Afran, a deputy attorney general on Jan. 5 demanded that Brindle participate in a disciplinary investigation but still refused to disclose the alleged remark to Brindle.
“On Mr. Brindle’s behalf I explained the independence of ELEC prohibited Mr. Brindle from participating in that investigation,” Afran wrote.
Brindle has been on staff at ELEC since 1985 and has been its executive director since 2009.
On Thursday evening, near the end of a lengthy committee meeting, Senate Democrats inserted an amendment to the wide-ranging “Elections Transparency Act" that would make ELEC’s executive director, currently appointed by the agency’s commissioners, a gubernatorial nominee to serve “at the pleasure of the governor.”
The bill is scheduled for a vote in the state Senate on Monday.
Afran said that the Murphy administration is using Brindle’s email as pretext to destroy ELEC’s independence, and that the efforts to force him out behind the scenes are illegal interference with the agency.
“Jeff has been an extremely independent official. And he has been open about discussion the need for transparency, connections with dark money funding and other matters. It’s very likely that there are people in the governor’s office who are seeking to eliminate this type of independent voice,” he said.
