Gottheimer spent more than 10% of public-funded office budget on ads days after announcing run for New Jersey governor

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer followed up his New Jersey gubernatorial campaign launch last fall with a massive digital ad buy from his congressional office — a payment to a vendor linked to his political operation that Washington watchdogs say looks like a flagrant use of public funds to advance the Democrat’s political ambitions.

Days after Gottheimer kicked off his bid for Drumthwacket on Nov. 15, his House office paid $180,225.92 for “advertisements” to an Iowa-based firm called Pinpoint Digital LLC, congressional disbursement records show. The figure vastly outstrips the amount any other representative spent on ads in the same period — and exceeds even the combined advertising expenditures of all 11 other members of the New Jersey delegation.

It also dwarfs any other expenditure on publicity Gottheimer had made in the previous year, as well as his only prior outlay to Pinpoint Digital: $88,000 across five payments in the summer of 2023, which began shortly after Gottheimer began staffing his statewide political operation.

The ads last fall came in two segments, House filings show:  a round of 30-second YouTube bumpers titled “All of the above,” “Golden Years,” and “Middle Class,” all bought on November 19—then another, “Kids These Days,” purchased three days later. The spots do not focus on issues specific to Gottheimer’s 5th Congressional District, which comprises parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties, nor do they mention any of the municipalities his district contains.

Rather, they address concerns for the whole state.

In “All of the Above,” Gottheimer touts his efforts “to lower your energy bills” via alternative energy expansion and home and school efficiency improvements; in “Golden Years,” he praises the state’s elder population and calls for “property tax rebates and rental rebates for seniors,” as well as the preservation of entitlement programs and reduced prescription drug prices; and in “Middle Class,” he vows his opposition to New York City’s congestion pricing program, claims he “clawed millions of your tax dollars back home” for local expenditures, and calls for the restoration of state and local tax deductions and the enlargement of the child tax credit. Finally, in “Kids These Days,” the congressman pledges, “I am fighting to expand the child tax credit, and guarantee pre-K for every kid.”

All four ads feature Gottheimer speaking directly into a camera in a blue quarter-zip fleece, with text on screen showing his name and the sentence “NUMBER ONE PRIORITY MAKE JERSEY MORE AFFORDABLE,” a version of which he says aloud in each ad. This motif closely resembles the main theme of Gottheimer’s gubernatorial campaign: lowering the Garden State’s cost of living.

The purchase’s proximity to the campaign launch alarmed Donald Sherman, executive director and general counsel to the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Sherman highlighted the official guidance for House office budgets, referred to as the Member Representational Allowances, or MRAs, which states they are meant only for the “support of the conduct of the Member’s official and representational duties to the district from which elected” — not, he noted, for personal or campaign uses.

The regulations also bar mass communications within 60 days of a contested election. But Sherman said the current system doesn’t consider the potential abuse of these taxpayer-funded accounts by House members seeking another elected office.

“It strikes me as exploiting a loophole in the rules to use the MRA to support the congressman’s campaign launch for higher office,” Sherman said of Gottheimer’s payment to Pinpoint Digital. He recommended that the House of Representatives’ internal authorities examine the situation and consider updating the restrictions to cover campaigns for other positions. “We certainly think it’s worth the Ethics Committee looking if this is a violation of the letter or the spirit of the rules, and whether the rules and guidance that are provided to members should be adjusted to prevent this kind of expenditure of the MRA coinciding with a campaign launch for another political office.”

Gottheimer’s team maintains that the ad campaign was fully compliant with all rules and guidance and received signoff from congressional overseers.

“All of the congressman’s franked communications have been approved by the bipartisan House Communications Standards Commission — a panel made up of both Democrats and Republicans that authorizes all franked materials and is run by the House Committee on House Administration,” Spokesman Tony Wen told The Jersey Vindicator.

The House disbursement records show that all expenditures for Gottheimer’s office last year — including rents, staff salaries, equipment, utilities, subscriptions and other communications efforts — came to $1,723,502.70, meaning the batch of ads made up more than 10% of his entire office budget for 2024.

By comparison, the offices of Gottheimer’s Democratic colleagues spent little or nothing on advertisements during the same reporting period, which covered the final three months of 2024.

Rep. Robert Menendez reported spending just $8,799.39 on advertisements over the last quarter of the year, while the recently deceased Rep. Bill Pascrell’s office spent $69.27.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who also announced her aspirations to the governorship in November, reported no expenses on advertisements in the final quarter of 2024. Neither did then-Rep. Andy Kim, who was Senate-bound; the recently arrived Rep. LaMonica McIver; Rep. Frank Pallone; Rep. Donald Norcross; or Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman.

On the Republican side, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Thomas Kean all showed no outlays for advertising.

As a contact for Pinpoint Digital, Wen provided an email address for Jim Kottmeyer, a veteran Democratic political consultant. Kottmeyer told the Jersey Vindicator that the high price point reflected the cost of placing the promos on YouTube and that his team targeted them within Gottheimer’s district using one of the site’s tools.

Kottmeyer is best known as co-founder of the firm GPS Impact, which shares an address with Pinpoint Digital in Des Moines. In New Jersey, GPS Impact handled ads and tech services for Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2017 campaign and has worked for Gottheimer’s congressional campaign since July 2023.