The following is a response to a public request made by Walter F. Helfrecht in the May 3 Examiner regarding information posted on www.ReachAnEducatedDecision.net.
With regard to displaying on the Web site that donations were “tax deductible,” Reach an Educated Decision (RED) acknowledged and corrected this error. There was no intent to “mislead” the public. More importantly – in order to ensure that RED did not intentionally mislead its donors – the donors were contacted on an individual basis and were offered a full refund of their donation when the error was realized.
As a political committee, RED conformed to the guidelines of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), www.ELEC.state.nj.us, by providing the name and address of the organization and the “paid for by” wording on the Web site and on all communications distributed. RED was not required to list the ELEC registration number on the Web site but did so anyway after a request was made.
As for RED’s financial activity, all the requested information can be obtained and reviewed on the ELEC Web site by clicking “View Reports” at www.elec.state.nj.us/ElecWeb/StandardSearch.aspx, then “View a Candidate/Committee Report” and entering “Reach An Educated Decision” under “Committee Name.”
May 7 was the due date for the final campaign report for ELEC. As promised, RED is in the position to donate all the surplus funds to the Upper Freehold Regional Elemen-tary/Middle School PTA and the Education Foundation as promised.
RED would like to once again thank all the donors, administrators and community members who worked diligently to support our efforts in presenting the facts of the middle school referendum and the 2007-08 school budget.
John Reynolds
Chairman
Reach an Educated Decision