Campaign Finances

Alex Zdan is continuing to gather county endorsements as he seeks the Republican nomination for United States Senate. Recent reporting by the New Jersey Globe states that the Cape May County Regular Republican Organization has endorsed his candidacy. That county joins Burlington, Essex, and Passaic in supporting the former News 12 reporter in his bid to challenge Senator Cory Booker in November.

Zdan previously sought the Senate nomination in 2024. During that campaign he secured several county endorsements before withdrawing after news reports disclosed a prior arrest for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

Public reporting and campaign filings indicate that Zdan remained politically active after ending that campaign. During the period between the 2024 race and his current 2026 bid:

• Zdan formed Authentic Leadership for America (ALFA PAC), a political action committee registered with both the Federal Election Commission and the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
• He joined TV Asia as a political contributor and launched a program titled Inside the Headlines with Alex Zdan.
• Politico reported he briefly explored a congressional run for the seat held by Rep. Herb Conaway (D-NJ-3).
• TAPinto reported he sought consideration for appointment to the Robbinsville Township Council but was not selected.
• Before ultimately entering the 2026 U.S. Senate race.

Federal campaign finance reports and promotional materials associated with ALFA PAC provide additional insight into that period. Together, these records show modest fundraising activity and a series of public events involving Republican officials and conservative advocacy organizations.

Public Record NJ has previously reported on Zdan’s connections within the county party organization in an earlier analysis of the Monmouth County GOP and the disappearing Alex Zdan articles. This article reviews those filings and related public records to document Zdan’s political activity between the end of his 2024 Senate campaign and the start of his 2026 bid.

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has issued a consent order final decision against Daniel T. Rodrick, the mayor of Toms River, resolving an enforcement complaint tied to his 2023 mayoral campaign filings.

The final decision, issued February 17, 2026, matters because it is the Commission’s formal resolution of the enforcement case. It closes the pending complaint and sets the penalty amount, rather than presenting a preliminary allegation. The matter was handled as an administrative enforcement action under New Jersey’s campaign-finance law.

The Commission dismissed the Count One allegation that Rodrick failed to report three expenditures totaling $32,021.38, but imposed penalties for late reporting of contributions, accepting two excessive contributions, and incorrect reporting of a contribution. The final decision states the Commission reduced a $7,207.36 penalty to $5,765.89 and acknowledged receipt of the payment. The case is captioned as a “Consent Order Final Decision” in ELEC v. Daniel Rodrick, C-G 15080102-G2023.¹

New Jersey has hundreds of public school districts. Almost none hire lobbyists.

State disclosure records show more than 500 public school districts operate across New Jersey. Only two appear in state lobbying disclosure records. Middletown is one of them.

The distinction stands out even more today. The district is facing a significant budget shortfall and planning to close schools to address it. That contrast raises a basic accountability question: when a public school district hires a lobbying firm, what decisions is it trying to influence, and what did students and taxpayers receive in return?

In Middletown, the public record reveals two disclosure systems that are usually examined separately: campaign-finance filings from the November 2025 Board of Education election and New Jersey lobbying disclosures filed by a Trenton-based government affairs firm. When those filings are read side by side, they show overlapping names, vendors, and timing — a pattern similar to one identified in our prior research on how campaign spending and political media intersect in Monmouth County.

They also raise several unanswered questions about how the district engaged a lobbying firm.

The most direct document-based link is this: CLB Partners LLC reported “Middletown Township Board of Education” as a represented entity on a Form L1-A annual lobbying report, listing $15,000 in receipts and identifying the entity’s business type as “School board.”¹

Separately, the joint candidates committee that backed three school-board candidates in 2025 reported a donor whose employer was listed as CLB Partners.²

Our review also identified at least one contribution that does not appear in the candidate committee’s campaign finance filings required under New Jersey election law. It is one of several contributions that point to a broader network of relationships surrounding the board, where public money, lobbying activity, and local elections intersect.

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has filed two enforcement complaints tied to political fundraising and reporting in Holmdel—one naming Rocco Impreveduto, a municipal candidate, and his treasurer, and a second naming the Holmdel NJ Republican Committee and its organizational treasurer.

The filings matter because an ELEC enforcement complaint is a formal step in the agency’s enforcement process: it lays out proposed findings and legal conclusions, and it starts a case in which respondents can request a hearing before any final decision is issued.

The complaint against the Holmdel Republican Committee is the first enforcement complaint issued for the 2025 election cycle.