Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is once again in hot water over campaign finance issues. Baraka and the city council members who ran on his slate in 2022 failed to report more than $700,000 in donations and spending, according to a new complaint from the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. The campaign finance watchdog found that between Jan. 1, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2023, the slate, called Team Baraka 2022, failed to report 590 contributions totaling $713,375.76 and 497 expenditures totaling $731,728.32.
Baraka sailed to re-election that year, and all but one of the city council candidates who joined his ticket also won their races. But now, the slate could face hefty penalties. State law allows for fines of up to $9,800 for each reporting violation.
The new complaint comes after Baraka recently paid hefty fines to ELEC for violations related to his first campaign for mayor. And the complaint comes as Baraka is ramping up his campaign to become New Jersey’s next governor.
Baraka said in a statement the reporting problems were the fault of an outside firm his campaign had hired, and that he expects the firm to fix its mistakes.
“This is about filing necessary paperwork on time regarding our municipal races and absolutely needs to be done,” Baraka said. “We have a firm handling this, and I communicated to them that this was unacceptable and needs to be taken care of as soon as humanly possible. I believe deeply in government transparency, and I am confident this will be done and that every dollar will be accounted for and reported.”
