Malinowski leads fundraising pack in expensive NJ-11 race

Former Rep. Tom Malinowski raised the most money out of any of the 12 candidates running in the special election for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, per Federal Election Commission reports filed over the weekend, but nearly every candidate in the race has raised enough money to at least put up a serious fight.

Between his campaign launch in November and January 16, when the pre-primary reporting period ended, Malinowski raised close to $1.2 million. That’s one-and-a-half times as much as his next-closest competitor, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (D-Montclair), and more than twice as much as anyone else in the race.

All in all, no fewer than nine candidates – eight Democrats and one Republican – have raised more than $250,000 for their campaigns, making this one of the most expensive House primary cycles in state history. And outside groups, too, have been pumping additional millions of dollars into the race, primarily to attack Malinowski and boost Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way.

With just ten days to go until the February 5 primary, here’s where the money race in the 11th district stands.

How much did each candidate raise?

Malinowski, who represented a neighboring congressional district from 2019 to 2023, entered the race with more national connections and fundraising experience than anyone else, and it evidently paid off. His $1,161,127 raised is one of the largest-ever fundraising quarters for a New Jersey House candidate during the primary season, though the pre-primary reports covered a span that’s 16 days longer than standard quarterly reports.

The former congressman also leads in both money spent and money left on-hand. He’s reported $756,930 on campaign expenditures since November, far more than any of his competitors, and still had $404,197 left to spend for the race’s final stretch.

Conventional wisdom has long held that Malinowski’s closest competitor is Gill, and that certainly seems to be true on a fundraising front. Gill raised $808,103 during the pre-primary period, $208,500 of which came from himself, and he cut himself another $150,000 check after the reporting period had ended; he’s spent $460,108, including on an attack ad against Malinowski, and had $347,995 left on-hand.

Somewhat more surprisingly, the third-best-funded candidate in the race is ex-Army paratrooper and venture capitalist Zach Beecher, who’s on his first campaign for elected office. Beecher raised $504,639, spent $293,417, and had $211,221 still in his campaign account.

Analilia Mejia, a former Bernie Sanders staffer aiming for the district’s progressive lane, raised $420,218, but she’s spent very little of it (just $62,097) so far. That means she likely hasn’t yet reached as many voters as some of her opponents, but it also gives her plenty of money, $358,121, for the race’s final weeks.

Way raised a similar amount of money, $404,541, but she’s spent most of it ($319,178) and had just $85,363 left over. Fortunately for her, though, outside groups have already spent close to $2 million boosting on pro-Way messaging, so her own campaign won’t need to do as much to stay competitive.

Way and Mejia also entered the race later than most of their foes – in many cases after commitments for money and endorsements had already been made to other candidates.

Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett (D-Wayne) raised $465,705, including $100,000 in self-funding, and spent $394,511. Thanks to his prior unsuccessful congressional campaign in 2018, Bartlett also began this year’s race with a decent bit of money already in his account, and ended the pre-primary period with $260,855 on-hand.

Morris Township Committeeman/ex-Mayor Jeff Grayzel and former Obama administration official Cammie Croft both entered the race earlier than almost anyone else, and thus had more time to build up a fundraising base. Grayzel has raised $428,174 in total, $100,000 of which was self-funded; Croft has raised $372,318.

Comedian and attorney J-L Cauvin reported raising exactly $100,000; activist Anna Lee Williams has raised $26,422 (after being the first Democrat to launch a campaign); and Chatham Borough Councilman Justin Strickland has not yet filed his report, saying that he still needs to review its details.

Two candidates who dropped out of the race (but will still appear on Democratic primary ballots) posted modest fundraising totals: ex-congressional staffer Marc Chaaban, who’s now backing Mejia, raised $118,917, while Maplewood Committeeman/ex-Mayor Dean Dafis, now a Gill supporter, raised $76,949.

Lastly, there’s Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the lone Republican in the race. He raised $260,813, a very respectable total given that most Republicans consider his chances of flipping the 11th district to be low.

Who’s giving money?

Malinowski cultivated a broad donor base during his three prior campaigns in a swing congressional district, and many of his new campaign’s supporters, both in New Jersey and outside of it, are likely drawing from that same pool.

He also received donations from several of his former colleagues in the House and Senate; from Democratic megadonor George Soros and his son Alex; from Bill Kristol, a former conservative leader-turned-Never Trumper; and from a number of donors who earmarked their donations via J Street, the liberal Zionist group that often serves as a counterweight to AIPAC.

Gill’s donor list, meanwhile, is littered with notable New Jersey names: Gov. Phil Murphy and fellow alums of Murphy’s inner circle like George Helmy, Parimal Garg, and Joe Kelley; top Essex County Democrats like County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, Clerk Chris Durkin, and Sheriff Amir Jones; and a plethora of well-connected attorneys and government affairs specialists. (Also curiously on his donor list: former Republican Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce.)

Gill additionally got what seems to be the race’s only corporate PAC donation so far, from the infrastructure firm AECOM.

Mejia’s donor list is full of state progressives like Hetty Rosenstein, Ras Baraka, and Saily Avelenda, though it’s missing many of the national progressives that are part of Sanders’s wider orbit. She also raised $161,153 via unitemized donations, donations of less than $200 that don’t need to be individually reported; that’s more than anyone else in the race, indicating strong support from small-dollar donors.

Way’s fundraising base is a mix of New Jersey figures like former Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli and political strategist Jeannine LaRue alongside big donors like Steve and Jonathan Tisch, the co-owners of the New York Giants. (Way’s husband, Charles Way, spent five seasons as a Giants fullback.) She also received $250 from former Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-North Haledon), despite the fact that Sumter has endorsed Gill.

As befits two candidates who made their names outside the New Jersey political world, Croft and Beecher had the least New Jersey-centric donor bases, with most of their money coming from out of state; Croft only reported seven New Jersey-based donors among her itemized donations in the pre-primary period.

There’s a small 7th district proxy war going on in the 11th district donation data: one of the Democrats looking to unseat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), Brian Varela, donated $2,500 to Gill, while rival candidate Michael Roth gave $250 to Malinowski.

And a few donors decided to hedge their bets on multiple candidates: former U.S. Senator Bob Torricelli gave to both Malinowski and Gill, Acting State Comptroller Shirley Emehelu, a Montclair resident, gave to Way and Gill (both donations were made before she was named comptroller); and former U.S. Attorney Phil Sellinger gave to Malinowski, Gill, and Beecher.

What about outside groups?

As much as the candidates themselves have raised, it’s possible that when all is said and done, more money will have been spent in the 11th district by groups outside it than by the candidates within it – a somewhat alarming frontier for New Jersey elections.

The race’s biggest spender, and its most controversial one, is United Democracy Project, the campaign spending arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. UDP, which has committed its enormously well-funded operation to defeating Malinowski for reasons that are still somewhat unclear, has spent $1,450,002 so far on an ad blitz targeting the former congressman.

AIPAC hasn’t said which of Malinowski’s opponents it would rather see elected to Congress, but there’s some evidence that the answer is Way, who has received a wave of outside support that counterbalances the attacks on Malinowski. The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has spent $1,394,119 to boost Way, and another $350,000 has come in from Article One Inc. PAC, a so-far mysterious group that had never spent a dime before this special election; the far smaller Rolling Sea Action Fund has also spent $15,000 on Way.

Malinowski has some super PAC firepower of his own in the form of the 218 Project, a PAC set up by ally Julie Roginsky that has spent $407,000.

Mejia has gotten aid from a variety of progressive groups, chief among them the Working Families Party, that have spent $184,473 so far. Lastly, there’s Affordability and Progress PAC, a new group formed by a handful of unions that’s spent $31,939 boosting Gill and another $31,939 slamming Malinowski.