Category: Elections

The New Jersey Working Families Party has raised alarms over a new bill aimed at addressing the state’s long-standing ballot design issues. Instead of solving the problem, this legislation entrenches party control, creating even bigger challenges for voters and candidates alike. Recent events paint a troubling picture: after gutting campaign finance laws and undermining the Open Public Records Act, both...

Over the past two weeks, we have explored contributions to county-level political action committees through a series of in-depth articles. Below, you’ll find the complete series: Click Here

81% of contributors to County Level PAC’s and Political Committees disclosed their employer, with 5% identifying as self-employed. Contributions from those listing an employer accounted for 76% of the total funds donated to non-individual county political entities.   Major Contributors: The top 50 donors with employer disclosures contributed close to $3 million to county PACs or political committees. Among these,...

Between 2019 and 2023, businesses donated nearly $1 million to County PACs and Political Committees. The data below and prior articles on this topic do not include donations to individual candidates or contributions to state and national political campaigns. The top five contributing business sectors, ranked by total dollars donated, are: Engineering (primarily related to property development and civil engineering)...

A Look at Top Non-Individual Contributors and Recipients – NJ County PACs and Committees (2019–2023) Our first article on campaign spending used Berkeley Heights, NJ, as a case study to illustrate the challenges residents across New Jersey face in understanding how campaign contributions influence their local governments. In our second article, we expanded the focus to a county-by-county analysis of...

Wikipedia offers a concise definition of a Political Action Committee (PAC): “In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation.” One good definition of gray money comes from the Brennan Center for Justice: What causes...

The Assembly Select Committee on Ballot Design is hosting its last public hearing on Monday, December 2, at 6:00 PM via Zoom. This hearing is a critical opportunity for individuals and groups to voice support for legislation that enacts the terms of Judge Quraishi’s order and ensures the permanent adoption of office block ballots for both political parties in future...