The challenge for voters is to learn as much about the candidates as they can, to feel assured that they are selecting local government leaders who are trustworthy, honest, and competent.
Behind the façade of what we hear from candidates, one of the most critical issues in any political campaign is money: How much was raised? Who are the donors? How much has each large donor given? What, if anything, were donors offered in return for their contributions?
By law, this information is available to the public. Every candidate running for public office in New Jersey must file a series of reports with the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC). Review of original and amended reports can tell voters a great deal about the candidates who submitted them.
For the Teaneck Municipal election in May 2020, candidates Karen Orgen, Michael Pagan, and Mark Schwartz jointly filed with ELEC as a joint-campaign committee (a slate), called Moving Teaneck Forward. Moving Teaneck Forward's chair and treasurer was and is Gerald T. Reiner, Jr., who is a Board of Education Trustee and purchasing agent for Bergen County. All candidates and joint-campaign committees are required to file campaign finance reports according to ELEC’s basic rules.
So What Did Moving Teaneck Forward Campaign Committee Do?
Moving Teaneck Forward filed their initial ELEC reports as a joint committee on time. However, soon after the May 12, 2020 election in which they were all victorious, several town residents checking the ELEC reports saw that Moving Teaneck Forward's contributions and expenditure numbers had major discrepancies that did not add up. Residents filed a formal request for investigation and asked ELEC to address the problems that had been identified in the reports.
On January 21, 2021, more than eight months after the election, Moving Teaneck Forward filed five new ELEC reports. Three of these new reports were submitted as amendments to replace completely the earlier filed reports. In these amended reports, all of the numbers that had been originally reported were changed.
In the original reports, Moving Teaneck Forward reported only three donors who contributed more than $300, whereas, in the January 21st amended report, they reported 50 donors who contributed over $300. Most of these 47 donors who had never been reported before the election had given exactly $900.
In the original reports, Moving Teaneck Forward reported no in-kind contributions. In their January 21st amended report however, they reported an in-kind contribution of $4,300 from candidate Mark Schwartz to cover the value of Moving Teaneck Forward ads placed in the newspaper, The Jewish Link. Also included in the January 21st ELEC report, for the first time, were two invoices from The Jewish Link to “Moving Teaneck Forward, attn: Mark J. Schwartz.” The invoices showed that the market rate for the in-kind ads placed for Moving Teaneck Forward was $24,600. But the invoices also show that The Jewish Link had given an 83% “special deduction” of more than $20,000.
Candidates can contribute as much personal money as they want to their own campaigns. However, Mark Schwartz is not the sole owner of The Jewish Link, so its funds are not his own personal funds. Since these funds of The Jewish Link are not solely Mark Schwartz’s, the limit that The Jewish Link can contribute to a three-person candidate committee is $7,800, not $24,600.
Any loan made to a campaign must be reported to ELEC when it occurs to allow the public to track campaign committee finances. Before the election on May 12, then-Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin paid $36,000 to cover Moving Teaneck Forward's pre-election printing and internet ad expenses. Those expenses did not appear in any of the original ELEC reports. And there is no reporting, even in the 1/21/2021 reports, of how the then-Mayor was repaid, apparently with funds raised after the election.
Of the 50 donors newly listed on January 21, 2021, 47 showed addresses outside of Teaneck. Non-Teaneck contributors were 94% of the contributors who gave more than $300; only 10 of these contributors were even from Bergen County, 28 were non-Bergen County residents, and 9 were from out of state. Outside donors are not illegal – but Teaneck residents have to ask why? Why did out of town, county and state donors want the Moving Teaneck Forward slate to win? Individual donors tend to give money to candidates they believe in, while businesses usually give to politicians because they expect to get something in return. With all this money coming from businesses outside of Teaneck, we need to know who controls Teaneck’s government? Why do Teaneck residents not financially support Moving Teaneck Forward?
Unfortunately, the facts revealed by the amended Moving Teaneck Forward January 21, 2021 ELEC reports were unknown at the time of the May, 12, 2020 election. The election was remarkably close, especially given the disparate amounts of campaign funds expended. Would the election outcome have been different if the facts were known?
