Last year, a consulting firm named Remington & Vernick Engineers (RVE) donated $5,000 to Cherry Hill's Democratic candidates for Township Council in an uncontested general election, making RVE their largest donor that year by far. Those recipients are Council President William Carter, Sangeeta Doshi, and Rob Connor. Council Member Jill Hulnick received $1,000 from RVE.1
RVE is Cherry Hill's appointed Consulting Municipal Engineer; that is, a public contractor. Their most recent contract is not to exceed $500,000 in 2026, a drop from $600,000 in 2025.
All is well
It is legal in New Jersey for public contractors to donate to governments that could hire them, a practice sometimes referred to colloquially as "pay-to-play", though NJ uses a slightly different legal definition. As Ashley Balcerzak of the Bergen Record reports:
Firms with state contracts worth more than $17,500 are not allowed to donate more than $300 to candidates and committees, but there is a large exception, the “fair and open” loophole. A contract can be awarded to a company that made larger political contributions if the award was made through a “fair and open” process, a vague standard that could mean it was publicly announced in a newspaper or publicly bid.
I have no proof that public contractor donations influence any politicians to award them contracts. Even so, the average person could perhaps see how this might present a conflict of interest, a situation that's unethical, even if legal. If a government awards a company a contract out of favoritism, and if the contract pays more than if there was a truly competitive bid process, then taxpayers pay a "corruption tax". Even if the contract isn't inflated at all, the recipient could've gained unfair advantage while its competitors were shafted; such an environment isn't exactly conducive to new business formation and a dynamic local economy. Political donations from current or potential contractors might make favoritism more likely.
In Cherry Hill's case, I'm not alleging that anything illegal is happening, but accepting donations from any business seems to me like bad optics for little gain. Are our council members that hard up for $5,000 in an uncontested election? Even if nothing nefarious is going on, our leaders are able to remain even subconsciously objective, and all contracts are awarded based on merit, such donations erode public trust and encourage people to disengage from a political process they view as hopelessly captured. Cherry Hill Township's excellent weekly newsletter implies to me that the government wants us engaged with what they're doing, so contractor donations seem counterproductive.
Elsewhere
RVE donates to political candidates across NJ, making them one of the state's biggest public contractor donors (if not the biggest). In 2025 they reported $802,100 in political donations and $78.8 million in contracts--though obviously there's no proof that their donations cause the contracts.
Their biggest gifts were in South Jersey. In the 2025 election cycle2, their largest single donation was $20,800 to the Gloucester County Democratic Executive Committee. As Balcerzak reports, there is no longer a legal limit on "contractors donating to state, county and municipal political parties and legislative leadership committees."
RVE's largest municipal donees last year were the three Democratic candidates for Atlantic City council--Patricia Bailey, Stephanie Marshall, and Mohammed Ahmed--who faced just two Republican opponents. Next was $7,200 to the Gloucester Township (Camden County) Democratic Committee and another $7,200 to the Democratic candidates for Gloucester Township council and mayor: David Mayer, Carolyn Grace, Helen Albright-Troxell, and Ciri Castro Jr. They all faced Independent opponents.
RVE gave more to some local candidates and parties than they gave to gubernatorial candidates Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciatarrelli. (Yes, they donated to both of them.)
RVE donated at least $25,000 to American Representative Majority, a PAC which takes out loans from George Norcross, a prominent Camden County businessman, former Cherry Hill resident, and NJ Democratic Party power broker. Open Secrets reports that RVE employees donated $9.500 in 2024 to the reelection campaign of Congressman Donald Norcross, representing NJ's 2nd congressional district--including all of Camden County, half of Gloucester County, and two towns in Burlington County--and brother of George.
All of this is to say that RVE is just one prominent public contractor that's enmeshed in NJ political networks on both sides of the aisle, though with a strong Democratic tilt, perhaps because Democrats control the state government and most local governments.