Navigate

Public Record NJ is an independent research project using verifiable public records to bring clarity, context, and accountability to New Jersey politics.

Notes

News and meta posts about Public Record NJ itself: new research releases, methodology notes, publishing updates, and announcements that help readers understand what the project is doing and how. This category is where you can introduce major reports, explain how data was collected or archived, share changes to coverage scope, and publish housekeeping items like newsletter updates or site milestones. It provides a clean home for content that is valuable to readers but not tied to a single investigation.

Notes · November 12, 2025
· 9:00 AM · 3 minutes read

New Research Examines Overlap Between Campaign Spending and Undisclosed Political Media in Monmouth County

Drawing on NJ ELEC and FEC data, a new Public Record NJ study traces more than $280,000 in campaign payments linked to a vendor associated with a local outlet, identifying patterns between spending, timing, and favorable coverage without disclosure.

Today Public Record NJ releases our research paper titled Mapping Influence and Information Flow: The Convergence of Party Spending and Political Media in Monmouth County. The study examines how campaign spending, vendor relationships, and digital media intersect within local political networks.

The research draws exclusively on publicly available data from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJ ELEC) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It identifies recurring patterns between campaign payments and the publication of favorable online content, raising questions about transparency and the blending of political consulting with local media.

Read more