Senate Republican Leader Leonard Lance and Assembly Republican Leader Alex DeCroce today sent a letter to the editorial board of the Press of Atlantic City asking the newspaper to rescind its endorsement of Jeff Van Drew in light of today’s front page story exposing Van Drew’s circumvention of campaign finance rules.

“It is now more apparent than ever that Jeff Van Drew answers not to the voters of the First District, but to the Democratic bosses in Camden County,” Lance and DeCroce say in their letter. “Worse yet, it appears that Van Drew circumvented campaign finance laws to exceed campaign contribution limits.”

The story in today’s Press of Atlantic City exposed the fact that state campaign finance reports show union groups and the Camden County Democratic Committee effectively circumvented campaign contribution limits in the 2007 and 2005 elections by funneling money through the Cape May Democratic organization to Assemblyman Van Drew and his running mates.

According to the story, the Cape May County committee passed $74,000 in two union contributions to state Senate candidate Van Drew, Assemblyman Nelson Albano and Assembly candidate Matthew Milam, according to reports filed Monday with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The unions also sent $59,400 directly to the candidates, bringing the total funding to date to $133,400. State law caps direct contributions from the two unions to the legislative tickets at $98,400 for the primary and general elections combined.

The Press story points out that in 2005, Van Drew and Albano benefited from $400,000 in loans given by the Camden County Democratic Committee to the Cape May County organization in the final week of the Assembly election. The loans went immediately to a media consultant in Philadelphia to fund a last-minute television ad blitz for the Van Drew and Albano campaign.

Posted: 10|25|07 at 9:38 am. Filed under: News.