Campaign Post Mortem. Atlantic City Mayoral Money Trail.

Gilliam Atlantic City
Wow. That’s Some Serious Bank.

Now that Atlantic City has a new Mayor, might be time to review some publicly available, financial data about the Gilliam and Guardian campaigns. Few follow this boring accounting stuff, but these ELEC docs often reveal interesting sub-plots. Stuff you’ll never read in the Press of Atlantic City.

Atlantic City Elections Campaigns Gilliam


The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) is an independent governmental agency that tracks campaign finances. 

The ELEC Commission compels candidates to comply with “pay-to-play” laws, file contribution and expense reports, and identify lobbyist donation.

Politics make for strange bedfellows. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Two classic quotes that might explain why Democratic Council President Marty Small, joined forces with Republican candidate for Mayor, Don Guardian.

On no less than 3 occasions leading up to the election, Mayor Don Guardian stroked a check for Councilman Small. Both Guardian & Small share a deep disdain for Atlantic City Mayor, Big Frank Gilliam.


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A grand total of $5,000 was paid out to Small by candidate Guardian. Click to view.

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Mo Money. Very impressive bank account for Mayor Gilliam.

Big Frank raised over $243,000 for his election campaign. That’s MUCH MORE than past Mayoral candidates. Guardian raised about $148,000.

Gilliam smartly spent little on traditional advertising like Radio & Newspaper. That stuff no longer works the way it used to.

Instead, GOTV, (Get Out The Vote), along with messenger / absentee / mail-in votes, comprised the winning mix that allowed Big Frank to grab the corner office inside City Hall.

Congrats, Mr. Mayor. Let’s celebrate & twist one up…..as soon as legally possible.

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Jim Kennedy of @ACEconPolicy asks: Why would any campaign spend $350,000 to elect someone Atlantic City Mayor? For the Gilliam campaign: $107,555 was raised during the primary. $243,471 was deposited in Frank’s acct during the general election.

See Guardian ELEC Summary here