County party committees are heading into a federal election year with their largest combined cash reserves in more than a decade, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

Based on available reports, cash-on-hand for all committees filing reports totaled $3.9 million as of March 31, 2022. Going back to 2012, the previous first quarter high occurred in 2019, when joint reserves totaled $3.3 million.

Democrats, who control both US Senate seats, 10 of 12 congressional seats, the governorship and both
legislative houses, have stashed away the most campaign cash. They reported $3.3 million in cash-on-hand, or more than five times the $602,852 reported by Republican committees.

Jeff Brindle, ELEC’s Executive Director, said Democratic committees are benefiting from more than $4.8 million they received from out-of-state contributions in 2021 compared to $178,028 for Republican committees.

An ELEC analysis released February 3, 2022 found that Democratic committees raised 41 percent of their funds last year from out-of-state groups compared to just seven percent for GOP committees.

While the GOP reserves are much smaller than those of the Democrats, they are their highest level since
2019.

Democrats benefited from big checks from the Democratic Governors Association, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, Oklahoma donor Stacy Schusterman and national affiliates of some New Jersey unions.

“The infusion of out-of-state funds armed Democratic county party committees with more firepower going into a key election year, when Republicans will be trying to pare down the eleven-to-one Democratic advantage within the state’s Congressional delegation,” Brindle said.

“During each election year, county parties help with get-out-the-vote efforts and other party functions.
Having a cash windfall certainly provides a boost though other factors like the trend in voter sentiment also come into play,” he said.

Along with having bigger cash reserves, Democrats also have raised and spent more so far this year.

Among Democratic counties, nine county party committees- Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Essex,
Gloucester, Mercer, Passaic, Somerset, and Union- reported cash balances above $100,000.

Hudson County reported a negative net worth due to outstanding debts.

Among Republican county party committees, only Cape May reported more than $100,000 in cash-on hand.

The numbers in this analysis are based on reports filed by noon May 3, 2022. They have yet to be verified
by ELEC staff, and should be considered preliminary.

Individual reports can be reviewed on ELEC’s website (www.elec.state.nj.us).
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