The public was told virtually nothing in the Spring of 2020 about the large campaign contributors to the winning Council slate, Moving Teaneck Forward (MTF)
Why? MTF had simply broken most of the State’s mid-campaign election reporting rules!
MTF’s required official reports last Spring had claimed only only $8500 in big ($300+) contributions
But then 8 months AFTER the May 2020 election – on 1/21/21 – MTF fessed up & filed ALL NEW State reports –
And WHAT did we learn from the new reports? For starters:
MTF had taken in $42K in big donations but left out – or better, simply illegally treated as small, unreportable donations – $34K of contributions which were in fact the large – and therefore reportable – donations from big contributors. And that meant that those large contributors were not identified as required.
That means even the existence of 36 large contributors and other required data about them were not even identified to the State by MTF until January the next year (2021).
Each and every one of these large contributors were legally required to have been reported to the State (ELEC) BEFORE the election
This failure to timely report invites a question: Had the MTF planned – or promised – to these contributors that the campaign would simply NEVER disclose these big donations. Were the donors assured that their NAMES would not be made public, nor would where the contributors lived and worked and what were their occupations??
Was there any other quid-pro-quo? Apparently, the State is still investigating!
What else do we know so far?
Only One of these 39 BIG contributors lives in Teaneck – All but one of those major supporters (whose contributions were to have been reportable before the election) LIVED somewhere other than in TEANECK.
We almost surely do not yet have the full story. Various enforcement authorities have been asked to investigate.
But while we wait, we can at least examine what MTF finally reported in early 2021. (See below the image listing all 39 of these contributors .) Here we summarize what that image tells us.
Where did these large mid-campaign contributors actually reside?
(1) Only One from Teaneck
(7) Only 7 of the large contributors came from Bergen County
(24) 24 of the large contributors from NJ reside out of Bergen Cty
(7) 7 other large contributors reside out-of-State
What was the size of these large contributions?
5 Donors contributed $1000-$6000
27 Donors contributed 900
7 Donors contributed $400-$600
Which invites the next series of questions:
How were these contributors recruited.?
Why would 27 donors choose to give exactly $900 if they had not been told that that was the amount that the candidates were requesting/recommending. Again, were they promised anonymity?
The image below is from the AMENDED/MOST RECENT (January, 21/2021) MTF reports that are now found on the Election Law Enforcement Commission’s (ELEC) website
The information about large contributors was due from MTF to ELEC either 29 or 11 days BEFORE May 5, 2020
