The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission is expected to select Amanda S. Haines, a 19-year veteran of the campaign watchdog agency, as its new executive director.
She will become the first woman to lead the 51-year-old commission, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
Brindle announced his retirement last summer after fourteen years as executive director. That came five months after Gov. Phil Murphy had sought to oust him over an email sent to a staffer last fall that mocked National Coming Out Day.
Haines joined ELEC in 2005 after graduating from Temple University Law School, and served as deputy legal director before becoming acting director following the departure of Demery Roberts. She is a Hammonton native and a graduate of Princeton University.
After the passage of the Election Transparency Act in 2023, Murphy named Thomas H. Prol, a former New Jersey Bar Association president, as chairman, and three other new commissioners: former Assemblyman Ryan Peters (R-Hainesport), longtime Clark Municipal Prosecutor Jon-Henry Barr, and former Senior Deputy Attorney General Norma Evans.
The ELEC commissioners launched a national search to replace Brindle last August.
Haines will come aboard during a critical time for the agency: the 2025 governor’s race. ELEC administers public financing for gubernatorial candidates.
Joseph Donohue, the highly-respected longtime deputy executive director, had been leading ELEC on an interim basis after Brindle’s departure.