Transparency Starts at Home

What do you think of when the word “transparency” is mentioned?

Most people picture open-door government offices, public records requests, and the laws that keep public meetings accessible to the public. But transparency begins much earlier. It starts within the political committees that recruit and support the people who eventually serve in government.

That idea became personal during my recent campaign for the Mansfield Township Committee. While running as the Republican nominee, I learned how critical it is for party organizations to live up to the same standards of openness that they expect from elected officials. My experience showed that those standards are not always followed.

The Warren County Republican Committee’s bylaws are clear. Article III(E) states that every committee member “shall be committed to supporting Republican candidates for all levels of elected office.” Article VII(A) says that any municipal committee vacancy must be filled “by a majority vote of a quorum convened at a duly noticed meeting.” These provisions are meant to prevent insider decisions and protect the integrity of the Republican Party.

During the campaign, those rules were ignored. In the Republican primary, three candidates, including myself and Glenn, competed for two nominations. When the general election arrived, both of us were the certified Republican nominees. Instead of backing its official ticket, the local Republican committee chose to support a write-in campaign by Desiree Mora-Dillon, a former candidate who had lost in that same primary.

Many of the same individuals who sit on the local governing body also serve on the Mansfield Republican Committee. That overlap makes it difficult to separate party decisions from municipal politics and limits the range of perspectives that residents deserve to have represented.

In public social-media posts and conversations, the municipal chair defended and promoted the write-in effort while declining to support the certified Republican nominees. That selective loyalty violates the bylaw requiring all committee members to support their party’s candidates. It also damages public trust in a fair and consistent process.

To understand whether internal procedures were being followed, I asked for the meeting record documenting how a vacant seat was filled after the write-in campaign began. Both the bylaws and state law (N.J.S.A. 19:5-2) require such meetings to be properly noticed, held with a quorum, and recorded with a vote. No record was ever provided. Instead, the municipal chair told me in writing that the process was part of “closed committee deliberations” and that I was “not entitled” to see it.

That refusal did more than withhold information. It exposed how transparency often disappears when those in power are asked to explain their own actions. Filling a committee vacancy is an official act under state election law that must be documented and filed with the County Clerk. Treating it as a private conversation erases accountability and weakens confidence in both party and government.

Transparency should not depend on who is asking the question. Every organization that makes decisions affecting the public, whether a town council, a county board, or a political committee, owes openness to the people it represents. When a committee ignores its own rules or hides basic information, it sends the wrong message to voters and undermines the trust that democracy relies on.

The voters of Mansfield made it clear that integrity matters. Despite the lack of institutional support, my campaign earned bipartisan backing from residents who wanted honesty and accessibility over back-room politics. When leadership drifts away from community values, voters have a way of bringing it back in line.

My hope is that the Mansfield Republican Committee takes this opportunity to reflect and return to the standards already written in its own bylaws. Those rules were put in place to ensure fairness, unity, and accountability. Following them strengthens the committee and restores confidence among the residents it represents..

Michael Bollard
Republican, Mansfield Township Committeeman-Elect