County party fundraising sees 28% drop

by: Jason Springer

Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 02:00:00 PM EST

I wrote the other day about the decrease in fundraising for the big six leadership committees and the current state of finances. Following up on those numbers, ELEC came out yesterday with their totals on how county party committees faired:

"Fundraising by county committees has decreased by 28 percent since 2005, the last time there was an election for Governor and the General Assembly,'' said Jeff Brindle, Executive Director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Over the same period, expenditures were down 30 percent, he said.
County party committees raised $13.7 million in 2009, a $5.2 million reduction from the $18.9 million raised four years ago, he said. Spending dropped from $19 million to $13.3 million, a $5.7 million reduction.

That's a pretty significant drop and the factors again most likely relate to the economy along with the tightening of pay to play laws. But ELEC director Jeff Brindle also offered another reason for less money at the county organizations:

Brindle said another local trend also could be curtailing amounts reported by county party officials. Several new political action committees have formed recently, some by county party members themselves, he said. "This activity may be drawing funds away from the county organizations,'' Brindle said.

It's a constant moving target tracking campaign fundraising. If you go back to 2003, ELEC says overall spending is down 51%. In addition it should be noted that while it's not expected to change the basic findings, there are still six counties that have not filed fundraising reports for the final quarter. I'll put the full breakdown of county party numbers below the fold.

Jason Springer :: County party fundraising sees 28% drop

2009 COUNTY POLITICAL PARTY COMMITTEES CUMULATIVE TO DATE AMOUNTS AS OF FOURTH QUARTER

DEMOCRATS - RANKED BY RECEIPTS

RECEIPTS

EXPENDITURES

BERGEN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION

$1,701,941.36

$1,697,213.56

CAMDEN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$1,273,972.99

$1,066,830.85

ESSEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$1,263,610.78

$1,258,463.10

MIDDLESEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION

$983,136.69

$1,169,720.80

PASSAIC COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$774,178.99

$692,298.77

UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$693,095.43

$555,230.72

HUDSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION

$572,502.00

$592,331.47

GLOUCESTER COUNTY DEMOCRAT EXECUTIVE CMTE

$561,462.45

$564,797.60

BURLINGTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$539,842.69

$510,307.10

MONMOUTH COUNTY DEMOCRATS

$520,497.84

$534,908.26

MERCER COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$402,565.54

$423,146.82

CUMBERLAND COUNTY DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION

$372,146.94

$365,247.27

ATLANTIC COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$328,668.12

$326,930.43

SOMERSET COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$246,608.44

$234,369.57

OCEAN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$170,102.47

$116,851.49

MORRIS COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$131,016.45

$90,481.91

HUNTERDON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$65,837.96

$57,320.54

SALEM COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$39,930.00

$45,806.11

CAPE MAY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION

$31,000.00

$18,404.04

WARREN COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$21,469.52

$14,130.55

SUSSEX COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE

$11,040.32

$10,619.96

DEMOCRAT - TOTALS

$10,704,626

$10,345,411

REPUBLICANS - RANKED BY RECEIPTS

BURLINGTON COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$627,887.00

$649,143.00

BERGEN COUNTY REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION

$343,680.07

$342,643.30

SOMERSET COUNTY REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CMTE

$232,742.05

$224,399.79

MONMOUTH COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$209,148.20

$205,099.61

MORRIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$170,923.53

$175,978.44

OCEAN COUNTY REPUBLICAN FINANCE CMTE

$170,166.42

$170,225.01

ATLANTIC COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$168,269.90

$165,028.85

CUMBERLAND COUNTY REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION

$159,340.14

$158,645.72

MERCER COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$147,837.49

$144,451.23

UNION COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$143,363.11

$141,265.98

PCRRO (PASSAIC COUNTY)

$91,759.00

$84,250.29

SUSSEX COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$85,690.00

$70,536.38

CAMDEN COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$76,358.94

$96,343.58

SALEM COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$65,316.62

$83,829.08

HUNTERDON COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$63,217.50

$58,677.17

ESSEX COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$54,900.00

$57,042.97

GLOUCESTER COUNTY REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CMTE

$47,947.54

$45,908.02

WARREN COUNTY REPUBLICAN CMTE

$45,452.00

$48,853.14

CAPE MAY COUNTY REGULAR REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION

$41,825.00

$34,675.77

MIDDLESEX COUNTY REPUBLICAN ORGANIZATION

$27,370.00

$22,280.53

HUDSON COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY INC

REPUBLICAN - TOTALS

$2,973,194

$2,979,278

2009 - COUNTY POLITICAL PARTY COMMITTEES - TOTALS

$13,677,820

$13,324,689