SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New election transparency laws in New Jersey were used to hide the source of some campaign finances until after the election this year.
It didn’t affect the results, but Sen. Vince Polistina (R-Atlantic County), who voted in favor of the election law changes, is asking for an investigation into dark money groups.
Financial disclosures show South Jersey Democrats were behind a political action committee called Jersey Freedom, which spent money on advertisements in Legislative District 2 (Polistina’s district) and Legislative District 4 (including parts of Camden, Gloucester and Atlantic counties), boosting independent conservative candidates they hoped would siphon votes from Republicans.
“So there is no mystery. We know exactly what happened,” said Micah Rasmussen from Rider University’s Rebovich Institute.
He says, while all of the new rules were followed, the rules themselves are a problem for transparency.
“And it turns out that one of the loopholes that this new law created, it let these independent expenditure groups off the hook from disclosing who they are supporting in a timely way.”
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Rasmussen says if groups do a little planning, they can keep the source of funding secret for campaigns until after the election, which is what Jersey Freedom did.
“You know, this group knew that they were going to have to disclose eventually,” Rasmussen added.
Jersey Freedom put out a statement, without a person’s name attached, saying it followed every letter of the law.
Polistina won in Legislative District 2, despite the efforts of Jersey Freedom. In Legislative District 4, Democrat Paul Moriarty proved he didn’t need any extra help, also winning by a substantial margin.