The former Republican governor was fined for failing to file complete campaign finance disclosures for his primary campaign account for state Senate
Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco has paid the state's campaign finance watchdog $4,650 for campaign finance violations, nine years after the fact.TRENTON — It’s nine years after the fact and seven years since the state launched an investigation, but former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco has shelled out $4,650 in fines for campaign finance violations and returned almost $10,000 in illegal contributions from two heavyweight donors.
DiFrancesco settled with the state in August but details were released Wednesday. The former Republican governor was fined for failing to file complete campaign finance disclosures for his primary campaign account for state Senate. In February and March of this year, he filed the updated reports — one of which was 2,995 days late.
DiFrancesco, who was senate president from 1992 to 2002 and served as governor for 11 months after Christie Whitman resigned to head the Enivornmental Protection Agency, did not return a phone call seeking comment. He and John Coley, his treasurer at the time who was also named in the complaint, admitted no wrongdoing.
Election Law Enforcement Commission Executive Director Jeffrey Brindle said the investigation started in 2004, when the commission noticed two $7,000 donations to DiFrancesco’s account — far more than the $2,200 limit at the time — as well as his failure to file other reports. ELEC filed the complaint in 2008.
The commission originally fined DiFrancesco $5,800, but lowered the amount to $4,650 because he paid up in August, before its final decision was released.
DiFrancesco never did run for state Senate in 2001. Although he kept the campaign account open, he planned to run for governor instead, but quit the race after a spate of negative news stories detailed his controversial business dealings.
But the donations DiFrancesco had to pay back were made in October 2002 — almost a year after his political career ended. They were given to him by John Stefano and David Samuel, who are prolific campaign donors and founding partners of CME Associates, an engineering firm with millions of dollars in public contracts.
In June of this year, DiFrancesco reopened his campaign account and contributed $10,000 of his own money to pay $4,800 back each to Stefani and Samuel, and $400 to the person who prepared the report.
Brindle said he isn’t happy the commission took so long to settle the matter.
"Since I became executive director I’ve really tried to move things more quickly and to wind up some of these old cases that have been around for a period of time," he said. "We pretty much have done that now, but I think it also shows how persistent we are in terms of is someone violates the campaign act, no matter how old it is, we’re going to make sure things are made right."
Previous coverage:
• Former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco pays back thousands for campaign finance violations
• DiFrancesco's law firm settles lawsuit claiming harassment