The campaign account of former State Sen. Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City) has been closed after distributing its remaining money to several charities, including Team Walker Inc., a charitable nonprofit organization run by Assemblyman Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City), according to a campaign-finance report filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
Cunningham, 75, has been living in a memory-care unit for several years after being diagnosed with severe cognitive issues. A judge placed Jersey City attorney Matthew Burns in charge of her personal affairs while she was still in the Senate because she could no longer manage them herself.
It is unclear who decided how to distribute the money remaining in her campaign account.
Cunningham’s longtime treasurer, Philip Ciriello, signed the final report but has not returned calls to his office seeking information about who authorized the contributions.
Cunningham had more than $120,000 in campaign funds when she became sick. Her final filing shows that her committee began its last reporting period with $73,799.73 and received an additional $4,407 from voided checks, leaving $78,206.73 to distribute before the account was closed.
The largest contribution, $22,000, went to Sacred Heart School in Jersey City.
Team Walker Inc., Walker’s charitable nonprofit organization, received $11,268.91.
Two other organizations received the same amount: Kiddee Korner Day Care Center and the Shaheema & Arthur Williams Kidney Foundation.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Hudson County and Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church each received $10,000.
All six charitable contributions were made on December 15, 2025.
Ciriello’s accounting firm also received $2,400 on November 1, 2025, for compliance, legal, or accounting expenses.
The six charitable contributions totaled $75,806.73. Combined with the payment to Ciriello, they exhausted the campaign account.
The contribution to Team Walker was reported as a charitable donation to Walker’s nonprofit organization, not a contribution to his legislative campaign.
The report, covering the fourth quarter of 2025, was filed on July 3, 2026. It lists Ciriello and Cunningham on its certification and final declaration, although the publicly available filing obscures their signatures.
The document does not indicate whether Cunningham personally approved any of the payments, whether Burns participated in the decisions, or whether someone else determined where the money would go.
Cunningham was Senate president pro tempore and in the gubernatorial line of succession when her health began to deteriorate. The five-term senator was absent from the Senate from June 2022 until her term expired in January 2024.
No public announcement ever explained why she stopped attending Senate sessions.
The New Jersey Globe reported in 2022 that Cunningham was experiencing a severe decline in her cognitive health and that Burns had been appointed to oversee her personal affairs.
Her condition raised questions at the time about whether she could make consequential decisions, including whether she could resign from the Senate or whether a court-appointed representative could resign on her behalf.
Cunningham never resigned and remained in office until the end of her term despite being absent from the Senate for approximately 18 months.
Her campaign committee’s final filing certified that all remaining money had been distributed, that no debts or other obligations remained, and that the account had been dissolved.