Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Phil Murphy wants to raise New Jersey’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, but his canvassers are working for $12.50, Assemblyman John Wisniewski said Tuesday, rolling out a new line of attack as the June 6 primary nears.
Wisniewski, a rival candidate for the Democratic nomination, caught the $2.50 discrepancy in Murphy’s campaign reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission and cut a new web ad accusing Murphy of hypocrisy. He called on Murphy to give his canvassers $45,000 in back pay and a salary hike.
New Jersey led the list, as expected, but money rolled in from nearby New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Florida and California
New Jersey is one of only two states with gubernatorial elections this year, so the eyes — and the wallets — of the nation are focused on the Garden State.
The state Election Law Enforcement Commission has said that this year’s primary is on its way to becoming the most expensive in New Jersey history. As of its last campaign reporting date, May 8, the 11 major-party hopefuls had already raised about $22 million in just their candidate accounts, excluding outside committees. While 88 percent of that money came from New Jerseyans, people from 36 other states and the District of Columbia, as well as the United Kingdom, also contributed.
Democratic frontrunner Phil Murphy was responsible for roughly two-thirds of the total amount contributed as of the 29-day pre-primary reports. The $15.1 million he has spent on his campaign is unrivaled in size. But Murphy has also been the primary beneficiary of money contributed by each of the states that has given the most to New Jersey’s candidates this year.
These are the 10 states from which candidates had gotten the most money as of May 8:
