Hopeful mentioned in the roundup that ELEC put out a release yesterday summarizing the contributions from public contractors and they show a 29% drop over four years ago:Contractors last year acknowledged $10.7 million in political contributions, down from $15.1 million in 2006. In addition to the drop in donations, fewer entities with public work filed reports with ELEC. There has been a 21% drop in the number of companies filing. State pay-to-play laws say that all business receiving in excess of $50,000 in public contracts must report their donations annually. If businesses have state contracts, they are prohibited from contributing more than $300 to gubernatorial candidates, state political parties, county political parties, and legislative leadership committees. ELEC Executive Director Jeff Brindle had this to say about the decrease:"It appears that a growing number of contractors simply have stopped making donations due to pay-to-play restrictions,'' said Brindle. "Many firms apparently are fearful of losing government business by making a wrong donation."
Though ELEC looks at the positive, Jeff Tittel was critical of the contributions noting that six of the top eight contributors are still engineering firms, calling it "pay to pave." I'll put some more details about the top firms with state contracts and top contributors below the fold. Though some say they still don't go far enough, you wonder how even these pay to play laws will hold up when challenges come in court, given the recent Supreme Court ruling. |
Top ten campaign contributors
T&M Associates - $534,300
CME Associates - $499,370
Remington & Vernick Engineers, Inc. - $356,325
Maser Consulting P.A. - $227,711
Pennoni Associates Inc. - $210,079
Parker McCay PA - $207,030
Richard A. Alaimo Associates - $201,000
Birdsall Services Group - $191,850
Adams, Rehmann & Heggan Assoc. -$178,140
Capehart Scatchard P.A. - $154,317
Top ten firms with state contracts in 2009
Horizon Healthcare of New Jersey, Inc. - $1,220,031,118
The Prudential Insurance Company of America - $523,594,004
Sussex Bank - $468,232,308
Amerigroup New Jersey, Inc. - $298,480,790
Parsons Commercial Technology Group Inc. - $286,588,433
South State, Inc. - $204,888,571
Tilcon New York, Inc. - $168,216,558
George Harms Construction Co., Inc. - $140,610,169
Colonial Bank FSB - $133,622,151
Creamer-Sanzari Joint Venture - $86,436,217 |
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