It takes a lot of legwork to track down the money being raised and spent in New Jersey’s gubernatorial primary this year.

Most candidates benefit from multiple committees that either they created or that are working to get them elected. Some committees report their financial activities to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission and some to the Federal Election Commission. Some don’t report to those election authorities but file with the Internal Revenue Service. Many are nonprofits known as “dark money” organizations, because they don’t have to make public their contributors. Others are following a new state law and reporting income and expenditures to ELEC or are reporting voluntarily.

To calculate contribution and spending data, NJ Spotlight News looked at financial reports filed by nine of the 11 candidates for governor — two got in the race earlier this year and have not had to report fundraising and expenditures yet.

NJ Spotlight News also reviewed filings from the 28 committees identified as affiliated with the candidates or independently supporting the candidates from the start of 2022, following the last gubernatorial election. This reporting also examined IRS 990 tax forms and Form 8872s, which report political expenditures. Additional sources were the Nonprofit Explorer and 527 Explorer from the news site ProPublica and the website OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics, as well as interviews with state elections officials and other news sources.

Here’s a breakdown of the information NJ Spotlight News used to compile and calculate the data:

• The total amounts raised by candidates themselves are an estimate based on the amount of state public matching funds they have received so far. Because the law not does require candidates to file a quarterly committee report in the year in which they run for office, updated totals on their fundraising, including names and amounts for every contributor giving more than $200, will not be available until next month. Democrat Sean Spiller is the only candidate whose fundraising total was taken from his last report, as of the end of 2024, because he did not qualify for the matching funds program. The amounts spent and cash on hand for the candidates are as of Dec. 31, 2024. The amounts received in matching funds are as of April 22 and reflect the most recent awards from ELEC.
• The amounts for political committees and independent committees that have reported financial activity are based on their most recent filing, which in some cases was through March 31 of this year and sometimes through the end of 2023 or earlier, if a committee was inactive more recently. In all cases, the period during which the money was raised and spent is provided.
• The amounts for independent spending committees that have not yet filed for this election were taken from other committees’ filings when those committees reported giving money or transferring it to an independent group. Sometimes included or dated information is all that was available. No current information was available for two committees beyond their estimates of how much they expected to spend, which they are required to report in an initial filing.
• Also provided for the two congressional representatives running (Reps. Mikie Sherrill and Josh Gottheimer) are their total fundraising and spending for the 2023-24 cycle. Those federal campaign committees were set up for their reelection campaigns last year and they are not allowed to directly give more than the maximum $5,800 per election to their state campaigns. But there is also evidence of spending outside the borders of their districts, which could help their name recognition in the governor’s race. And Gottheimer’s congressional committee gave $9.6 million to an independent spending group that is supporting his gubernatorial campaign.

This reporting is made possible [in part] by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.