A dark money group that has meddled in several New Jersey races without a clear motive is now going directly on the offense against Sue Altman, a leading Democratic candidate for the 12th congressional district.
Late last week, the Florence Avenue Initiative filed a report with the FEC stating that it was spending $130,000 on digital advertising opposing Altman’s campaign. The content of the advertising, though, remains a mystery for now; several different people associated with the race for the 12th district said they have not seen any ads.
The group also later reported spending $54,000 on anti-Altman mailers, which say that “progressives [are] rejecting Sue Altman” and highlight her positions on Israel and police funding.
The new anti-Altman campaign is the Florence Avenue Initiative’s second time getting involved in the race for the 12th district, where 12 Democrats are competing in a wide-open contest to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). Last month, voters in the district began receiving mailers that attacked congressional stock trading and carpetbagging; the latter mailer seemed to be targeted at Altman, but no candidates were directly mentioned on either.
Back in the 2025 race for governor, voters got mailers from Florence Avenue Initiative accusing Mikie Sherrill of being anti-Israel, to little effect. And in 2024, the group spent millions of dollars on a pressure campaign to get then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to post the Antisemitism Awareness Act for a vote in the Senate.
Because the Florence Avenue Initiative is registered as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit – its IRS filing states that it promotes “social welfare advocating for fairness and equality” – it has been required to reveal very little about its finances. Now that it’s directly reporting campaign expenditures with the FEC, though, it’s possible that will change and more will be revealed about its funding sources and motivations.
“I have a LONG list of enemies – Christie, Norcross, Musk, AIPAC. Maybe they’ve all formed a PAC against me. Who knows,” Altman said. “What I do know is powerful people don’t want me in Congress because I’m not afraid to call out the billionaires and dark money trying to buy this election.”
Florence Avenue Initiative isn’t the first outside group to spend on the 12th district race, though it does seem to represent the first negative spending from anyone in the campaign.
A well-funded pro-Palestine super PAC, American Priorities, has spent $1 million to boost Adam Hamawy with more likely on the way, and Hamawy has also benefited from $54,000 worth of mailers from the Justice Democrats. A veterans-focused group called the Servant-Leader Fund, meanwhile, has spent $172,000 assisting Shanel Robinson.
This story was updated at 4:51 p.m. on May 15 with details on the new mailers, as well as Altman’s response to the attacks.
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