Two dark money political committees seeking to influence South Jersey legislative races didn’t file campaign finance reports by 5 PM today, so New Jerseyans might need to wait until Monday morning to learn who is funding them.
Brighter Future Forward, which has direct ties to the South Jersey Democratic machine, filed after 5 PM, POLITICO’s Matt Friedman reported on social media. And he said there is nothing from Jersey Freedom, the tenebrous group formed on September 11 and is based out of a post office box in Jamaica, Queens.
Jersey Freedom send attack mailers into the 2nd district race telling Republicans to vote for Libertarian Shawn Peck instead of the GOP incumbent, Vince Polistina. Peck took offense to being used by a group he’d never heard of, so he dropped out of the race and endorsed Polistina
In the 4th district Senate race, they sough to direct Republicans away from Christopher Del Borrello and toward a phantom candidate, Giuseppe Costanzo.
Once Brighter Future Forward and Jersey Freedom file and disclose their donors, they will shift out of the dark money category – maybe. And one misnomer about ELEC is the deadline is technically close of business, not midnight.
Reports from a third South Jersey group, American Representative Majority, were also not in by 5 PM.