Another outside group has begun spending money in the special election for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district – and unlike three other groups that are airing ads in the race, this one has virtually no online footprint or indication of why it’s chosen to get involved.
Article One Inc. PAC, which was formed on December 23 of last year, reported yesterday that it’s spending $350,000 on digital advertisements in support of Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way. The ads, which praise Way as someone who will fight President Donald Trump (echoing Way’s own campaign messaging), are the PAC’s only reported expenditure; the PAC is also new enough that it has not filed any fundraising reports, so there’s no indication of where the money is coming from.
The new spending adds yet more outside money to the already-expensive February 5 Democratic primary, but its exact purpose is unclear. A phone number listed to the PAC did not respond to a request for comment.
Way’s campaign – which is legally prohibited from coordinating with outside PACs – said it was unaware of the PAC’s intentions and had no information on its operations.
Way is already receiving a substantial amount of support from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, which has spent close to $700,000 thus far on TV ads and mailers promoting her campaign to succeed Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
More controversially, United Democracy Project, the independent expenditure arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, began spending heavily over the weekend to sink former Rep. Tom Malinowski’s comeback effort. UDP, which said it considers Malinowski insufficiently pro-Israel but hasn’t specified a preferred alternative, has invested more than $800,000 into its anti-Malinowski campaign thus far, with more potentially still to come.
(A third PAC, the 218 Project, was created by a Malinowski ally and has spent around $100,000 on pro-Malinowski advertising.)
The fact that the DLGA and UDP began spending on the race at the same time, as well as some similarities between their ad buys, raised the prospect that the groups are working in conjunction with one another, though the DLGA denied any connections between the two. It’s just as possible that Article One Inc. PAC, too, has ties to AIPAC’s effort; any information on the PAC’s purpose or funders may not become known until after the primary is over.
Article One Inc. PAC is connected to one other group, Article One Victory, that came into existence at around the same time last year. Article One Victory filed as a participant in a joint fund that includes the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and ten House Democratic incumbents, all of them moderates or swing-district members; two individuals listed as treasurers for either Article One Inc. PAC or Article One Victory, Pat Devney and Rory Steele, also have long histories in moderate Democratic politics.
