The race for Morris County Republican chair has made its way to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. 

A letter and supporting documentation was sent to ELEC late last year asking the state elections watchdog to investigate the “Morris County Republican Victory PAC operated by John Sette and Rob Zwigard.” The reference to Sette and Zwigard hardly seems coincidental. Sette, a former county Republican chairman, is backing Zwigard for that job at this June’s GOP convention.  The other presumed candidate, Ronald DeFilippis, ironically, is a former chair of ELEC.  The complaint letter is unsigned, which is not unusual when one writes to a regulatory or law enforcement agency. A spokesman for ELEC said it does not confirm or deny investigations.  But ELEC does make violations and the penalty (generally a fine) public when and if they occur.  Supporters of the Victory PAC, or Political Action Committee, said the allegations are without merit.

The letter and documention, which has been obtained by Insider NJ, alleges that the Victory PAC “holds itself out to be an independent political action committee but in reality does not operate that way.”  On a global stage, independent political action committees came into the forefront after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, allowing unlimited amounts of money to be spent on behalf of a candidate. However, direct coordination between a campaign and an independent committee is prohibited.  In other words, such a committee can spend, say, $1 million, buying ads and distributing literature on behalf of a congressional candidate, but it can’t tell that candidate what it is doing. 

No one will confuse the Morris Victory PAC with a national “super PAC,” but the complaint relies on the same principle. It alleges that the Victory PAC coordinated campaign spending with a number of municipal and county campaigns in Morris County during last fall’s election. The complaint references an appearance by then-gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno at a Nov. 5 rally in which she said a get-out-the-vote robo call from her to voters was paid for by the Victory PAC. It also references Sette proclaiming at the same rally that the Victory PAC was helping local Republican candidates throughout the county.  Such direct coordination violated ELEC regulations, the complaint alleges. 

Not so, contended Alan Zakin, an attorney who said he’s handled the PAC since it was formed about 15 years ago. Zakin said the complaint falsely identified the PAC as an independent expenditures organization when it is not.  He said the Victory PAC is a “continuing Political Action Committee” and as such, is permitted to make contributions direct to candidates.   

“Since we’ve been founded, we’ve been a continuing Political Action Committee,” Zakin said.  Sette quipped that it’s hard to believe the Victory PAC’s detractors don’t know the law.  ELEC, of course, will be the final arbiter of that.  In the meantime, Morris Republicans have to be wondering what the next salvo will be in a race for county chair that is still four months away.