ELEC takes no action, a win for Lonegan

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission will not seek to deny public financing to Republican gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan, but will not make a public statement today regarding a private meeting today to discuss an unspecified issue that was believed to be related to the Lonegan campaign.

"If we were issuing a compaint in this matter we would be going public," ELEC Executive Director Frederick Herrmann told PolitickerNJ.com.  ELEC has not confirmed that they discussed Lonegan today.

The Lonegan campaign says they expect to receive an additional $139,640 in matching funds soon.

While ELEC had declined to disclose thereason for today's  meeting, it is widely believed that they will discuss issues pertaining to the public financing of Lonegan's campaign.  Lonegan acknowledged last week that he has provided ELEC with answers to some questions concerning his affiliation with Americas for Prosperity, an anti-tax issue advocacy group.

The ELEC investigation is the result of an Associated Press story that suggests the former Bogota Mayor was obligated to disclose the details of his relationship with Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax lobbying group for whom he served as New Jersey Director.  State law requires candidates to disclose their connection to issue advocacy groups to avoid a conflict, such as avoiding spending limits that come with the public financing of gubernatorial elections.

The Lonegan campaign maintains that the candidate could not disclose AFP contributions, since he did not have access to their donor list.  And they say that AFP was created and organized more than seven years ago, before Lonegan was involved.