Four-Year Gap In Middletown Republicans' Campaign Finance Reports

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — There was a four-year period where the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) did not have campaign finance reports from the Middletown Republican Committee, a situation that Democrats called "highly unethical."

The campaign finance reports were missing from the years 2016 through 2020. Sixteen reports that were missing.

Since Democrats and others pointed to the missing reports earlier this month, all the missing documentation has been filed and now are on record with ELEC.

Campaign finance reports are vital because they show who has donated to a political party and how the money is being spent. American political parties are required by law to submit them for public record, and to not submit them is a serious violation, as well as a breach of public trust.

The Middletown Republican Committee says they filed the reports accurately as required every year. They said they have no idea why ELEC did not have any record of the reports and chalked it up to a clerical error on ELEC's part.

"Every report for every quarter was sent by regular mail to P.O. Box 185 Trenton NJ 08625 (ELEC headquarters) as instructed," said a Middletown Republican Party spokesman. "We were informed by a Facebook inquiry that reports were missing. We contacted ELEC and inquired where these reports were placed. They could not find them quickly and asked us to resubmit the reports and they would once again place them in the appropriate quarter. The reports have been resubmitted and upon review are back on the site. We were surprised to learn about this clerical issue as all reports for candidates and the party have always been filed timely."

It was the job of Alannah Perry, the Middletown Republican Party treasurer, to submit the campaign finance records to ELEC. Perry is the wife of current Middletown Mayor Tony Perry and her father is Gerry Scharfenberger, now a member of the New Jersey Assembly. Before he became an assemblyman, Scharfenberger sat on both the Middletown Township Committee and the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders since 2016.

They are all Republican.

Was it a mere clerical error, as the Middletown Republicans claim? ELEC Deputy Director Joe Donohue told Patch that ELEC searched their Trenton offices looking for those four years of missing reports, but could not find them.

"We checked high and low for the reports. Nothing there," said Donohue. "We do make mistakes; we get 33,000 reports a year. But it's unlikely we are going to misfile three years+ of reports"

He also said that ELEC sent Alannah Perry several letters over the past few years, telling her that she had missed filing deadlines and reminding her of upcoming filing deadlines.

"We sent her letters repeatedly," said Donohue. "If we had the reports, we would not be wasting our time sending out letters."

The Asbury Park Press filed an OPRA request and got a copy of those letters; you can read their article here.

Middletown Democrats seized on the incongruity.

“This is highly unethical,” said Brian Penschow, a Democrat seeking a seat on the Township Committee this Nov. 3. Penschow and Marguerite Stocker are trying to beat Republicans Pat Snell and Ryan Clarke for the two seats.

“We must not only question the integrity of their fundraising process and the sources of those funds, but whether taxpayers have been overcharged for any no-bid contracts that should have been put out to bid," said Penschow.

Middletown’s local government — the Township Committee — has been all-Republican for a decade. Democrats have tried for ten years, without success, to be elected to the Middletown Township Committee.

The four years of missing reports were first uncovered by Alex DeSevo, a local attorney and Democrat who ran, without success, for the Middletown Township Committee. He said he was searching ELEC records last week to confirm that the Middletown Republican Party was not behind a series of text messages in the Middletown BOE race, as they claimed.

That was when he discovered the four years of missing reports. He notified both Patch and the Asbury Park Press about the missing reports.

On Oct. 16, DeSevo sent a letter to ELEC notifying them of the missing reports, and asked ELEC to open an investigation into the Middletown Republican Party.

It is unknown if ELEC has launched an official investigation into the matter. Similar to the way the New Jersey Attorney General works, ELEC does not confirm or deny if they are actively investigating a candidate or party.