ELEC publishes municipal campaign donations online for first time

by: Jason Springer

Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 10:45:00 AM EST

Initially, more than $5.5 million donated to 377 different primary fundraising committees last spring can be analyzed electronically. More than $11.5 million in general election funding will become available early next year.

Jeffrey Brindle, ELEC's executive director, said the new tool is part of the office's mission to provide "the fullest possible disclosure of candidate fundraising."

"More complete disclosure of municipal and county donations will enhance enforcement of pay-to-play laws, laws that are intended to discourage undue influence by public contractors," Brindle said. "If someone receives a public contract, any citizen can simply key in the person's name and a list of his or her contributions will appear."

And eleven other places in the state saw over $100,000 raised for campaigns:

Location	Receipts	Disbursements
Ocean County	$183,269	$188,602
Englewood	$177,963	$163,162
Morristown	$160,981	$152,362
Atlantic County	$157,042	$124,185
Camden County	$152,874	$142,567
Plainfield	$129,128	$148,998
Burlington County	$124,300	$124,300
Gloucester County	$117,032	$97,463
Passaic County	$114,354	$86,837
Brick Township	$110,593	$29,095
Secaucus	$107,889	$106,561

ELEC says they are working to provide more information including general election numbers, school board, May and June Municipal races and fire commission in the near future. Safari and Firefox users are hoping fixes come for them too so they can find all this additional information. You can search for information about contributions, candidates and contributors by visiting ELEC's website.