by Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey’s campaign finance watchdog will petition to join, as a friend of the court, a Republican lawsuit alleging an outside group violated state election law while seeking to boost third-party spoilers in November’s legislative races.
The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission unanimously voted to join the suit, filed by the New Jersey Republican State Committee, Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic), and a former GOP Senate candidate.
The complaint alleges Jersey Freedom, the group, improperly shielded campaign spending and fundraising from disclosure in the runup to Election Day, in a blatant attempt to cheat in what had been expected to be a close election.
“Truly, we’re there to assist the court in adjudicating the matter and offering our guidance and perspective to make sure our fingerprints are on this nascent law as it gets interpreted going through the court system,” said Tom Prol, the commission’s chair.
The commission is not joining the suit in support of either party, Prol said, but it wants to be involved in discussions about interpretations of the new Elections Transparency Act, which sharply raised campaign contribution limits amid a raft of other campaign finance changes.
Jersey Freedom came under fire this year after launching mailers, online ads, and television spots boosting independent candidates in South Jersey’s 2nd and 4th districts.
In an unusual move, the group reported no fundraising in a required pre-election filing, which instead showed it took on $35,226 in debt to fund a wave of campaign mail in those two districts.
It paid off that debt and later took on more debt for additional mailers from the same mail house, according to a post-election filing.
It launched television ads supporting Guiseppe Constanzo, an independent who ran in the 4th District, and Shawn Peck, a Libertarian in the 2nd District who suspended his campaign over the group’s support.
The group has said in legal filings that it properly reported its expenditures.
The digital and television ads Jersey Freedom ran were invoiced days after the end of the pre-election filing period, according to Federal Communication Commission records and Meta’s ad library.
A Superior Court judge barred Jersey Freedom from spending additional funds on the election after Republicans launched their suit in early November but declined to order existing ads off the air.
Despite the commission’s intention to serve in a purely advisory role, its move to join the suit was applauded by Republicans and a progressive group frequently at odds with South Jersey’s establishment Democrats.
“We only know that more shadowy dark money groups are going to pop up in future elections, and they would take it as a signal to engage in these type of tactics moving forward if actions are not being taken,” said Antoinette Miles, interim director for the New Jersey Working Families Party.
Jersey Freedom’s post-election filing showed it drew all of its funding from Brighter Future Forward, which itself was funded by contributions from building and carpentry union PACs and American Representative Majority, an independent expenditure group with ties to South Jersey Democrats and power broker George Norcross.
A Norcross representative declined to comment.
Attorneys for Jersey Freedom have asked the court to dismiss the GOP suit, charging Republicans failed to properly deliver notice of the suit and insisting it followed campaign finance law when disclosing its fundraising and spending.
A Democratic slate led by Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), now a senator-elect, won the 4th District races, while Polistina’s Republican slate won in the 2nd.
In both districts, third-party candidates won too few votes to affect the overall result.