Wall Dems Publish Full Campaign Donor List

Democratic challengers for Township Committee seats up for grabs in next month’s election on Friday made public their entire campaign donor list.

The move comes a day after a that showed only 44 percent of Democrats’ campaign donations were made publicly available, according to state election filings. The report found even less of the GOP's campaign donations were visible to the public.

State election law mandates that candidates for office list the name, address and amount given to their campaigns by individuals who donate $300 or more. That requirement is waived for individuals who give less than $300. Those donors are anonymous.

A showed that the overwhelming majority of money donated to the Democrat team of Charles McFadden and Tom Ehrlich and GOP incumbents Ann Marie Conte and George Newberry were invisible to the public. The report appeared Thursday.

“I believe that an open and transparent government is the best government,’’ Ehrlich said in a release. “That is why I have asked our campaign team to immediately make our contributor list available for public inspection.”

The donor list, available on the candidate’s campaign website, lists the name and amount of those who contributed to the campaign. It does not give the address or town in which people live, however.

“We need people in government who will lead by example,” McFadden said in the release. “Tom and I are willing to do that.”

The list, posted by the Wall Democrat campaign, accounts for donations of $12,500, including those that have been received since the last state reporting deadline earlier this month.

It was unclear Friday whether the next mandated state deadline to report campaign finances would include the full list of donors, or whether the full list would only be posted under Democrat control.

McFadden and Ehrlich called on the local GOP to follow suit and publish their donor lists.

on Thursday showed an overwhelming majority -- 87 percent -- of those who responded favored a full accounting of donors available for public inspection.

Newberry has said he would not be opposed to a change in the law that would eliminate the $300 reporting threshold.

Requests for comment Conte was not immediately answered Friday.