MORRIS COUNTY, N.J. – The Rizzo Campaign insists it satisfied a April 5th deadline to qualify for matching funds… or, at least, it satisfied the spirit of the program. In a Wednesday statement, the campaign anounced it had retained counsel to appeal ELEC’s determination.
“Hundreds of people made their voices heard to get us to this point and we believe the facts merit a re-evaluation by ELEC,” said Phil Rizzo in a statement. “We aren’t about to let down the people of New Jersey who are ready to get their lives back and want a change from the status quo. We’re fighters and we’ve been a grassroots campaign from the beginning. We believe we can get our message to New Jerseyans regardless of ELEC’s decision. But with that said, we’re optimistic that ELEC will reconsider based on the facts we present.”
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“The vast amount of widespread support, evidenced by over $250K in donations in the final eight hours, majority of which were small dollar donations, created a last-minute challenge in the system for all involved,” the campaign release explains. “The Rizzo Campaign has met both the statutory threshold, and the statutory deadline to raise the necessary funds, and can prove that well over $490K of donations were in the campaign’s account prior to the deadline on April 5th but experienced technical difficulties uploading the documentation.”
“We believe the actions of ELEC ignore the intent of the campaign matching funds program,” the release continues.
The word “intent” is significant, Save Jerseyans. It means the campaign isn’t really denying that it technically failed to comply with the filing requirements; instead, it’s apparently going to make an equitable argument that it raised the funds in the time allowed and therefore shouldn’t be boxed out of a dollar-for-dollar match due to technical or logistical issues.
ELEC informed Rizzo’s Republican gubernatorial campaign that it had missed out on matching funds in a letter first reported by Politico New Jersey on Tuesday.
Jack Ciattarell is currently the only GOP candidate to qualify for matching funds.
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