Libertarian candidates qualify for public funding
Campaign manager for D-14 Assembly hopefuls says they're 'in it to win'
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer
Candidates from the New Jersey Libertarian Party in the 14th District have officially qualified for public funding under the Fair and Clean Elections (FACE) pilot program.

By collecting more than 400 $10 donations, the third party has received a check for about $22,000 in public funding for their campaign.

Lou Jasikoff is the campaign manager for the two candidates for the state Assembly, Jason Scheurer and Ray Cregle. According to Jasikoff, their success in qualifying for public election funding is a first for any independent candidate taking part in the pilot. It is his hope that this will signal to campaign watchers that the Libertarians must be taken seriously as political candidates.

"Hopefully, the media will start looking at us as serious candidates, including us in any kind of writing that they do, [and] if they get an opinion from either Republicans or Democrats that they will return the same favor to us," Jasikoff said.

He said that the influx of new money won't much change their campaign strat- egy, which centers around running a grassroots campaign involving a variety of public appearances to get their names out to the public. This, he admits, is more difficult for independent candidates than for members of the major parties, but that does not intimidate them - they are in it to win it.

"We're not in this race to be spoilers, we're in it to win and regardless, we will affect who becomes the next Assembly people," Jasikoff said.

He said there has been a great reaction to the presentation of an alternative third voice in the Assembly race. He said people have been especially responsive when he mentions that, despite qualifying as a FACE candidate, Scheurer and Cregle's status as such will not be marked on the ballot. This was because, while qualifying by the funding deadline at the end of this month, they did not make the information deadline, which was Aug. 17. Jasikoff said that this was because the major parties wanted time to get the ballot to the translator so it could be worked into Spanish. He said many people were upset about this.

"Even though our ballots have not even gone to the printer yet, both the Democrats and Republicans decided that it needed to go to the translator. Our position on this is, one of the main positions we're pushing is we're hoping New Jersey would adopt English as the state language. We also … have the position that if you cannot read the ballot, maybe you should not be voting. And we're just trying to take America back, and when we go to talk to groups of people, this is something we're finding a huge response to," Jasikoff said.

He said that his party qualifying for the public funding will do well to inject some alternative voices into the race. He is confident that it will greatly affect the major party campaigns one way or another.

"Any third voice opens up more of a dialogue. You don't have the duopoly you have right now between Republicans and Democrats. We don't always get the clear truth. Both parties are beholden to their special interest groups. We are not - we're independent, and in doing so, we are bringing a totally fresh voice to New Jersey," Jasikoff said.

The Libertarians will be facing Democrats Linda Greenstein and Wayne D'Angelo and Republicans Tom Goodwin and Adam Bushman in the Nov. 6 Assembly race. District 14 consists of Cranbury, Hamilton, Jamesburg, Monroe, Plainsboro, South Brunswick and West Windsor.