Cash cascades into New Jersey races

Published in the Home News Tribune 10/30/03

By MICHAEL SYMONS
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

TRENTON -- With 11 days left in the campaign, candidates for state Senate and Assembly reported raising nearly $35 million for the Nov. 4 election, according to reports released yesterday by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

That's 27 percent more campaign cash than legislative candidates had raised at the same point two years ago.

All 120 members of the Legislature will be chosen Tuesday, including senators being elected to four-year terms.

The flow of the money into the elections included $11.8 million in the 18 days from Oct. 6-24 alone equal to $655,444 a day, $455 a minute or $7.59 a second.

Green Party candidates say such reports show the state needs the same "clean money" campaign rules as states such as Maine and Arizona, under which candidates can get public matching funds if they rely on small donors and shun special-interest and corporate cash.

"We've gotten a lot of people interested in legislation like this because they look at things this way: The people with money are the ones that are ruling the state of New Jersey, and how is their vote going to count?" said 21st District Assembly candidate George DeCarlo.

Mid-October money cascaded fastest into South Jersey, home to a number of competitive campaigns, including $2.4 million in the 4th District, already the most expensive legislative race in state history; $1.3 million in the 3rd District; and $689,600 in the 1st District.

More than $1 million flowed into the 14th District in Mercer and Middlesex counties, and $707,000 poured into the 12th District, mostly from Democrats seeking to poach seats in a GOP district. Almost $1.4 million combined was given to candidates in two Bergen County districts.

In the 14th District, according to reports filed on Oct. 24, incumbent Sen. Peter Inverso, a Republican, has raised a total of $433,037, and his Democratic challenger, Anthony "Skip" Cimino, has raised $890,688.

Those figures included in-kind donations and funds transferred from previous campaigns.

In terms of monetary donations only, Cimino raised $662,662, and Inverso raised $250,879.

Democrats -- who control the Governor's Office, Assembly and half the Senate -- have accumulated more money. They raised 63 percent of the donations from Oct. 6-24, or $7.5 million to the Republicans' $4.3 million, and have raised 61 percent of the money to date.

Democratic Senate candidate Nicholas Scutari, placed on the ballot this month after incumbent Joseph Suliga quit the race, has raised four times more money than 22nd District Republican candidate Martin Marks. Scutari's $168,000 includes $54,000 from a freeholder race.

"It shows that Democrats are fully engaged and even on the offensive in many districts that Republicans have traditionally taken for granted," said Adam Green, spokesman for the Democratic State Committee.

"Clearly we are going to have the resources to be competitive. In key districts where Democrats have spent millions of dollars, it looks like they've wasted their money," said Jeannette Issenman, executive director of the Republican State Committee.

Those reports don't tell the whole story. Legislative leaders' committees, state parties, county committees and independent political committees often spend money for a candidate but don't send a contribution, and those aren't necessarily in the candidates' reports.

They also don't include contributions made after the time period covered by the 11-day pre-election reports. Candidates must report large contributions made in the campaign's final days.

The statewide pattern was borne out in two Middlesex County districts.

In the 18th Legislative District, for example, a report filed on Oct. 24 behalf of Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Buono showed a total of $110,600 in monetary donations. Total receipts for Buono's campaign, including in-kind donations and more than $133,000 transferred from a prior campaign, amounted to $243,365.

By contrast, a report filed on Oct. 27 for her challenger, Republican Richard Plechner, showed a total of $9,295 in monetary contributions. Total receipts, including $10,646 from a prior Republican campaign, came to $20,741.

A particularly lopsided financial picture -- also in the Democrats' favor -- emerges in the 19th Legislative District, where incumbent Sen. Joseph Vitale of Woodbridge is being challenged by Republican Paul Danielczyk of Iselin.

Vitale's report filed on Oct. 24 showed total receipts of $149,203, including $106,776 in monetary contributions and $32,014 from a previous campaign. The commission yesterday had not posted the most recent report for Danielczyk, but his Oct. 7 report listed monetary donations -- which accounted for the total receipts for the campaign -- of $8,621.

In that same district, there is a hotly contested Assembly race involving Democratic incumbent John Wisniewski and his running mate, Perth Amboy Mayor Joseph Vas, and Republicans Arline Friscia, an incumbent, and Jeffrey Pino.

This campaign is an anomaly, because Friscia was elected as a Democrat but lost the June primary to Vas, and then bolted to the Republican Party, apparently carrying some of her fund-raising potential with her.

According to reports filed on Oct. 24, the receipts were as follows:

Wisniewski: monetary donations, $182,050; funds from prior campaign, $102,491; total receipts, $285,566.

Friscia: total receipts, all from monetary donations, $213,678.

Vas: monetary donations, $204,895; funds from prior campaign, $997; total receipts, $205,905.

The commission yesterday had posted only an Oct. 7 report from Pino, listing total receipts of $1,935.