Burlington GOP outspends Dems 2 to 1 before refunds

Burlington County’s Republican party has spent twice as much as its Democratic counterpart so far in 2019, according to October quarterly reports filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The Burlington GOP reported spending $326,185 between Sept. 30 and the start of the year, a little more than twice the $166,822 reported by the Burlington County Democratic Committee.

The trend holds in the last quarter. Between June and October, the Republican organization raised $100,100 to Democrats’ $8,150, though the vast majority of the GOP fundraising came from money sent back from candidates’ campaigns.

The campaigns of Assemblyman Ryan Peters, former Burlington County Sheriff Jean Stanfield — who is running for Assembly — and Burlington County Freeholder Latham Tiver, among others, returned $84,378 to the county party.

Independent of the refunds, the organization reported spending $33,623 on Peters’ campaign and $34,622 on Stanfield’s, though the Assembly candidates each returned $10,000 of the money.

The Republican county organization spent $70,868 on its countywide candidates in the third quarter, with the sum split equally between the three candidates.

Freeholder Latham Tiver and freeholder candidate Lee Schneider received $23,623 and $23,622, respectively. Republican Sheriff candidate Mike Ditzel received $23,623.

Tiver returned $20,000 Schneider returned $16,000, and Ditzel returned $12,000.

The Democratic organization spent less comparatively. It did not report any contributions to or spending on the behalf of Gina LaPlaca and Mark Natale, the eighth legislative district’s Democratic Assembly candidates.

The BCDC spent $7522.89 equally between Freeholder Dan O’Connell, freeholder candidate Lynn Hynes and sheriff candidate Anthony Basantis.

The Republican organization had $15,209 on hand at the start of October. The Democrats had $14,286 banked.