While this does not necessarily seem significant, for a Republican primary in sleepy Morris County, $16,000 is a lot of money. Plaintiffs in this case successfully argued that $16,000 represented such a large sum of the total amount of money spent in the election that it was enough to impact its outcome where the candidates were separated by only a handful of votes.
ELEC, however, appears to asserting its primal jurisdiction over such matters as it has done before. In Re the Contest of the Democratic Primary in 2003, 367 N.J. Super. 261 (App. Div. 2004). In this case the Appellate Division remanded an election contest to ELEC to "develop a record and utilize its expertise in interpreting the Act's provisions as to the claimed violations."
