ELEC releases $400k in matching funds to Baraka, Sweeney

The Election Law Enforcement Commission dished out a little more than $400,000 in public matching funds to a pair of Democratic gubernatorial candidates on Wednesday, according to an ELEC press release. 

ELEC disbursed $230,040 to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and $181,600 to former State Senate President Steve Sweeney. Baraka has now received $3,531,253 in matching funds, 64% of the $5.5 million cap, and Sweeney has received $4,741,097, or 86% of the cap.

No other candidates received matching funds on Wednesday. Three Democrats, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, and one Republican, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, have already reached the $5.5 million cap.

ELEC has now distributed a total of $35.9 million to eight candidates.

Under New Jersey’s public financing program, first enacted during the state’s 1977 elections, candidates for governor are eligible to receive $2 for every $1 they raise, as long as they both meet a minimum threshold of $580,000 raised and don’t go over a spending cap of $ 8,700,000. (More public funds will be made available to the two major-party candidates who make it to the general election, with higher spending caps in place as well.

Three candidates who will appear on primary ballots — New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, a Democrat, and former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera, both Republicans — did not raise enough to qualify for matching funds.