With a crowded race for the gubernatorial primary, campaigns are breaking spending records this year — especially when including the major role of outside money for the first time.
A NJ Spotlight News analysis calculated more than $100 million raised by the candidates and independent groups leading up to the election so far. And that’s not including dozens of related committees that have not yet reported financial information yet this year.
“The biggest case of those is the NJEA supporting Garden State Forward … which is then supporting Working New Jersey, which is supporting Sean Spiller,” said Colleen O’Dea, senior writer at NJ Spotlight News. “There’s a lot of committees here, and they’re promising to spend $35 million, but they haven’t had to file a report yet.”
O’Dea said U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th) also poses an interesting case.
“He has been prolific at raising money at the federal level, but you’re barred from giving more than the maximum allowed, which is $5,800 per election to your committee,” she said. “But there’s a group called Affordable New Jersey that is supporting him, and his congressional committee has given $9.6 million to this committee.
“These are supposed to be independent groups, which means there’s not supposed to be coordination between the candidate and the committee,” O’Dea said. “I’m not sure how you make that argument if the congressional candidate’s committee is giving money to this group.”
This report is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
