"... the Respondents’ Joint Candidate Committee (“JCC”) failed to timely report over $1,000,000.00 in runoff election transactions, and some of the required information was still unreported as of the date of the Court’s opinion. There are also charges of knowingly accepting excessive contributions. "
NEW JERSEY ELECTION LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION, Petitioner,
v.
PETER CAMMARANO, ANGEL ALICEA, RAUL MORALES, VINCENT ADDEO, and LUCY TRUGLIO, Respondents.
Now that was unexpected. New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ-ELEC) has been widely ridiculed as a toothless organization- by me, in fact. But last week, NJ-ELEC showed some fangs, taking a $95K bite out of 2009's Team Cammarano.
Team Cammarano was fined for late reporting (or failing to report) election transactions, "knowingly accepting excessive contributions" and failure to certify and sign reports. Fines levied varied from 10% of the total amounts reported late, to 50% of total excessive contributions.
The most interesting part of this story (to me) is what the Team Cammarano decision portends for recent and future Hoboken campaigns. Could those Raia-Braxton-Camis federal indictments for "conspiracy to use the mail to promote a voter bribery scheme" attract attention of NJ-ELEC to other Hoboken election irregularities?
Local campaign ethics watchdogs who bemoan lack of enforcement mechanisms for Hoboken's pay-to-play ordinance often overlook the state enforcement mechanism for state election law violations. Sure, state contribution limits are higher than those of Hoboken's allegedly unenforceable campaign limits, but they exist. Those state campaign contribution limits which most likely apply to our local elections are as follows:
- an Individual/Association/Union/Corporation maximum contribution to a candidate is $2600; to a candidate's committee it is $2600 per candidate. Hence, the maximum allowable contribution to Team Cammarano was $10,400 (4 x $2,600).
- a Candidate Committee, PAC or a Continuing Political Committee maximum contribution is $8,200 to a candidate; to a candidate's committee it is $8,200 per candidate.
Interestingly, the October 17, 2017 complaint letter sent to Hoboken City Clerk by Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher which alleged mayoral candidate Michael DeFusco had received $71.4K in excess campaign contributions per Hoboken's Pay-to-Play ordinance in fact contained one enforceable ELEC violation:
"July 17th ELEC for Michael DeFusco for Hoboken Mayor (July 15th ELEC)
6/17 – Local Union #164 IBEW – Paramus, NJ
$5,000"
Now, that's complaint waiting to be written. Is it the only one?
A cursory review of DeFusco for Mayor's aggregate contributions appear to show at least (3) more aggregates which exceed state contribution limits.
Ruh-roh... Who else in Hoboken has gotten caught on the ELEC hook?
Ruh-roh... Who else in Hoboken has gotten caught on the ELEC hook?
- In 2016, ELEC brought a complaint against 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo for late filing and non filing of contribution and expenditure information in his 2009 municipal election; Russo and his Treasurer were fined $3,384.40 which was reduced to $2,707.52. The Commission received payment in the amount of $2,947.52 on July 5, 2016.
- There is an open ELEC complaint pending against former Hoboken City Council President Christopher Campos and his Treasurer for his 2007 General and Runoff elections. The last filing was in December 2011: "COMPLAINT AND NOTICE OF OPPORTUNITY FOR A HEARING FOR LATE AND NON-FILING OF CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE INFORMATION AND RECEIPT OF AN EXCESSIVE CONTRIBUTION IN THE 2007 MUNICIPAL ELECTION AND FOR LATE AND NON-FILING OF CONTRIBUTION AND EXPENDITURE INFORMATION AND RECEIPT OF EXCESSIVE CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE 2007 RUNOFF ELECTION."
One million dollars in unreported runoff "transactions" to be spent in the three or four weeks between the regular election and the runoff. Nothing to see here folks, keep moving along.
ReplyDeleteDeFuckup and the other lying council members will stick to their narrative and their creative vote harvesting until they're forced out of the game.
The fines don't seem harsh enough. If they're able to raise one million just to spread around to win in the runoff, they'll budget money for the fines too. They should be much higher, and force the candidate out of office.
Are there any tools available to the council to put some teeth into our unenforceable P2P laws?
ReplyDeleteNot that this council ever would. They've made it clear that rules are only there to punish their enemies. But hopefully they'll be gone by this time next year.
The council only goes after honest people who refuse to let Tiff be a backseat driver.
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