Progressive Democrats of New Jersey File Election Law Complaint Against Union County RDO and Elizabeth Candidates

Elizabeth, NJ, June 11, 2020 – As we approach the July 7th primary election in New Jersey and Vote by Mail ballots are being sent out across the state, campaigning on all sides has started ramping up. With our state still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic and public demand for police reform and addressing systematic racism growing, the stakes this election have never been higher.

In Union County, as campaign mailers and lawn signs started going out, there was one common similarity on materials that were purportedly put out by two different campaigns: they both said they were paid for by the same committee. The lawn signs by one group of candidates in Elizabeth and the mailers of another group backed by the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County both had, “Paid for by Victory 2020,” printed on them.

“This issue was first pointed out to us by a resident who noticed the same ‘paid for by’ name on several pieces of campaign materials in Elizabeth that were seemingly put out by different slates of candidates,” said Jason Krychiw, Vice Chairperson of the Progressive Democrats of New Jersey and Interim Chairperson of the Progressive Democrats of Union County. “We were just as perplexed as they were and after some digging, it appeared there was a case for a larger issue involving a failure to abide by NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission regulations.”

The campaigns are seemingly in violation of N.J.S.A 19:44-9 b(1) which states, “no joint candidates committee so named shall take the same name as that of any committee of a political party or another joint candidates name.” Furthermore, while the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County backed candidates use their candidate’s names along with Victory 2020 on their D-2 Committee forms, that is not what appears on their campaign materials and is not in compliance with the naming conventions allowed by law.

“In all cases, the public has no easy way of knowing who is paying for what and could think that this is all one large organization,” said Jonathan Gibson, Executive Director of PDNJ.

“The misleading nature of these campaign committees is of grave concern. In the case of the incumbent leaders of the Union County UCDC/RDO these are the same people who created this game and they can’t even play by their own rules.”

PDNJ filed a formal complaint with NJ ELEC and will be sending a letter to all campaigns  asking they correct these errors and pull any campaign materials with this misleading information on it. The organization is citing that the violations will confuse voters on who paid for what and which people are behind which campaigns, ultimately making it harder for people to make an informed decision on who they are voting for.

“Whether intentional or not, this failure to follow campaign financing regulations by these two campaigns can only serve to sow uncertainty with voters,” added Krychiw