New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced his appointments for a new Election Law Enforcement Commission lineup on Thursday following the mass resignation of its former members in March.
The four appointments include a gay man and the first Black woman ever to serve on the commission. Under a measure passed earlier this year, the appointments don’t require state Senate confirmation.
The resignations came after a public fight over ELEC Executive Director Jeffrey Brindle, who reports to the commission. The governor had sought Brindle’s resignation over an internal email that was dismissive of National Coming Out Day. Others provided to Gothamist by a transparency advocate also included several negative comments about transgender issues.
After the state Legislature passed the Elections Transparency Act, which granted the governor the power to fire and reappoint the commission, the then-commissioners resigned.
The governor appointed Democrats Tom Prol and Norma Evans, as well as Republicans Ryan Peters and Jon-Henry Barr. Prol, who was the first openly gay president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, was selected to serve as the commission’s chair.
“The integrity of elections is a vital and sacrosanct component of a free and fair democracy,” Prol said in a written statement provided by the governor’s office. “Our representative government requires adherence to the rule of law and due process and I look forward to implementing the commission’s mandate with the guidance of those bedrock democratic principles.”
Prol is a partner at the law firm Sills Cummis & Gross. He co-drafted New Jersey’s marriage equality legislation and is a board member of LGBTQ rights group Garden State Equality, according to the governor’s office. He lives in Asbury Park.
Peters is a former member of the state Assembly who represented a district that includes parts of Burlington, Camden and Atlantic counties. He is also a former member of the Burlington County Board of Chosen…
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