Ex-ELEC commissioner seeks probe of Senate President’s campaign account

A former commissioner of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission wants an investigation into the campaign account of Senate President Nicholas Scutari after a newspaper report questioned whether he used election funds to pay for personal expenses

Stephen M. Holden, a former Superior Court judge and counsel to the Senate Democrat, had served as an ELEC commission from 2017 until earlier this year when he resigned in protest of legislation pushed by Scutari that revamped the campaign finance watchdog agency and allowed Gov. Phil Murphy to name four new commissioners without Senate confirmation.

“I was made aware of the possibility of improper allocation of election funds for personal uses, rather than for campaign activities, by the newspaper article in the Bergen Record,” Holden said in a letter to ELEC’s director of Reviews and Investigations, Shreve Marshall.

Holden said he followed up by conducting his own review of reports filed by Scutari on the ELEC website.

“It appears that certain personal benefits could have been derived from the non-specific allocation of campaign funds in the co-mingled reports of expenditures,” said Holden.  “Without further analysis, this issue cannot be properly addressed.”

If ELEC has not already begun a review, Holden said he will file a citizen request for an investigation.

“He’s obviously mad at me,” Scutari told the New Jersey Globe.