Fulop files ELEC complaint against Sherrill

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop has filed a complaint with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission claiming that one of his opponents, Mikie Sherrill, used her 2024 congressional campaign account to advance her 2025 gubernatorial campaign by sidestepping fundraising limits under New Jersey’s gubernatorial public financing program.

Fulop has asked ELEC to investigate whether Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman, to see if some coordinated expenditures from her re-election bid last year ought to count against her spending cap in the governor’s race.

The complaint does not offer any specific examples of violations.

“New Jersey’s matching funds system is designed to give everyday residents a voice, not to be exploited by candidates working with political bosses behind the scenes,” Fulop said. “We aren’t looking to score political points here with this action, but what Mikie Sherrill is doing is just plain wrong, and residents deserve a fair election.”

Fulop cites a 2023 advisory opinion from ELEC that said coordinated expenditures from a 2024 federal campaign will apply to expenditure limits on a 2025 gubernatorial campaign.

The opinion was issued in response to a request from David Maradie, a Fulop friend from Glen Rock, who claimed he plans to run for U.S. Senate in 2024 and governor in 2025.  Maradie asked if a Senate campaign can make “unlimited coordinated expenditures … that promote or aid the gubernatorial candidate’s image and likeness without affecting the available matching funds in that gubernatorial campaign.”

“The Campaign Act and Commission Regulations do not permit your gubernatorial candidate committee to receive unlimited coordinated expenditures from your Senate committee,” said Amanda Haines, then the ELEC deputy legal director and now the executive director. “All contributions received by your gubernatorial candidate committee from your Senate committee, including coordinated expenditures, are subject to the contribution limit.”

Maradie’s original request was far broader, asking whether any spending made by his prospective Senate campaign that increases his name recognition would run afoul of matching fund limits. After being prompted by ELEC to make a more specific request, Maradie narrowed his focus to coordinated expenditures from his Senate campaign.

“This is a fabricated charge from an obviously desperate and corrupt career politician with a long track record of steering city contracts to his campaign contributors,” said Alex Ball, Sherrill’s campaign manager, of Fulop’s complaint.  “His attempt to reinvent himself as a reformer is as laughable as it is insulting to voters.”