Hudson County, N.J. contractors gave $543K to Craig Guy and HCDO

HUDSON TV EXCLUSIVE

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Fifteen firms that hold contracts with Hudson County, N.J., or its agencies gave a combined $543,100 to County Executive Craig Guy’s campaign and to the Hudson County Democratic Organization, the party committee he chairs, from January 2024 through September 2026, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC).

Nine of every 10 of those dollars, $489,000, went to the HCDO. Guy’s own campaign committee, Craig Guy for Hudson County Executive, received $54,100 from the same firms and people.

Over the same period the county approved millions of dollars in work for many of them: engineering and design contracts, legal work, technology purchases, jail health care and election printing. In several cases a contribution was recorded days before the county board approved a contract or purchase for the same firm.

The contributions are legal under the rules in place since 2023, based on the records Hudson TV reviewed. That year the Elections Transparency Act let public contractors give county party committees far more than before. Before the change, a contractor that gave a county party committee more than $300 could be barred from no-bid county contracts. Now a gift to a county party no longer counts against a firm’s county work, and contractors can give as much as other donors. The New Jersey Democrat, an online newsletter, has put the new ceiling for contractor gifts to county parties at $118,500, up from $300.

What the law allows

New Jersey’s pay-to-play law limits contributions from companies that get government work without a fully open process. The 2023 Elections Transparency Act (P.L. 2023, c. 30) changed how that works for counties. According to guidance the state Division of Local Government Services issued in August 2023 (Local Finance Notice 2023-14):

• A county may now award a no-bid (“non-fair and open”) contract over $17,500 to a business that gave money to a county party committee such as the HCDO.
• A county still may not award such a contract to a business that gave more than $200 in the previous year to the campaign of a county elected official, such as the county executive.
• Contracts awarded through a “fair and open” process, public bidding or competitive contracting are not covered by that ban.

ELEC reported in August that the HCDO received $268,150 from public contractors in 2025. The commission said the 2023 law “made it easier for public contractors to contribute as much as other political donors without jeopardizing their contracts.”

The firms and their county work

The table lists contributions recorded by Guy’s committee and the HCDO from Jan. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2026, the period since Guy took office. County work comes from the Board of County Commissioners’ agendas and from annual disclosures the firms themselves filed with ELEC. Agenda amounts are authorizations, not payments.

*Includes a $32,000 in-kind contribution to the HCDO dated April 17, 2026. Contributions are listed under the date each committee reported receiving them. Gifts from employees who are not named principals are not counted.

Gifts recorded days before votes

• Chasan Lamparello Mallon & Cappuzzo gave Guy’s campaign $3,200 on Dec. 17, 2024. Six days later, on Dec. 23, the commissioners awarded the Secaucus law firm a $375,000 fair and open legal services contract.
• JCT Solutions gave the HCDO $30,000 on March 6, 2025, and Guy’s campaign $3,000 on March 24. On March 27, the board approved a $1,732,177.96 “JCT-Fiber Optic Data Network Upgrade” from Johnston G.P. through a cooperative purchasing system.
• Royal Printing Service of West New York, N.J., gave Guy’s campaign $1,500 on April 22, 2024. Three days later the board approved a four-year fair and open election printing contract worth up to $11,626,398.60.
• French & Parrello Associates gave the HCDO $5,000 each on May 9, May 20 and June 9, 2025. On June 12, the board approved a $553,300 addition to the firm’s contract for the Brennan Courthouse heating and cooling plant.
• CFG Health Systems’ owner, Gregory Ladele, gave the HCDO $15,000 on Sept. 16, 2026, his second $15,000 gift this year. On Sept. 24 the board passed the $15,414,933 second year of CFG’s jail health care contract.

The records do not show that any contribution was connected to any contract decision.

The Hindsight connection

JCT Solutions is the trade name of Johnston G.P. Inc., according to the business-entity disclosures the company filed with ELEC for 2024 and 2025, which list it as “Johnston GP Inc. dba Johnston Communications/JCT Solutions.” Those filings report $7.56 million in Hudson County work over the two years.

The county told Hudson TV on Oct. 19 that Hindsight, its longtime computer-systems contractor, was sold to Johnston Communications in 2023. On Oct. 8, the commissioners approved a seven-year, $25,593,480.20 contract with Hindsight, the only firm that submitted a proposal. The county says the contract went through a fair and open competitive process. Hudson TV reported that the county cited Hindsight’s staffing level to justify a higher price, staffing the county now says the vendor added on its own.

The HCDO’s report for April through June 2026 lists a $32,000 in-kind contribution from JCT Solutions on April 17, 2026. The description field is blank. Hudson TV asked the HCDO on Oct. 23 what the contribution was.

A county printer that is also the party’s printer

Royal Printing Service also works for the party. ELEC reports show the HCDO paid Royal about $697,000 from 2024 through September 2026, and Guy’s campaign paid it about $134,000 from 2023 through September 2026, mostly for printing and mailing. The HCDO’s latest report, filed Oct. 16, still lists $44,074.19 it has owed Royal since June 28, 2024.

Questions the records raise

• A no-bid addition in 2024. On Jan. 11, 2024, the board approved Addition No. 3, up to $40,000, to French & Parrello’s “non-fair and open” environmental engineering contract for the new courthouse. Guy’s campaign reported a $500 contribution from the firm on April 15, 2024. Firms holding non-fair and open county contracts may not make reportable contributions to a county official’s campaign during the contract. The records reviewed do not show when that contract ended. Hudson TV asked the county on Oct. 23 when the contract’s term ended.
• Contracts with no award type on the agendas. MAST, Waters McPherson McNeill and M&M report county or county-agency work in their own filings, but Hudson TV did not find the award resolutions on county agendas. Those agencies include the Hudson County Improvement Authority and Hudson County Community College. MAST gave Guy’s campaign $5,500 and Waters McPherson McNeill gave it $9,100 during the period.
• Dates that don’t match. Several firms report different dates for the same gifts than the committees do. French & Parrello’s filing for 2024 also lists a $2,600 gift to Guy’s campaign on Dec. 6, 2024 that does not appear in the committee’s reports Hudson TV reviewed.

What the county and the HCDO said

Hudson TV emailed County Executive Craig Guy’s office on Friday, Oct. 23, with questions about the $543,100 in contributions, the county procurement process for Hindsight, when French & Parrello’s non-fair and open contract ended, and how the contracts held by Waters McPherson McNeill, MAST Construction Services and M&M Construction were awarded.

County Communications Director Mark Cygan replied that afternoon: “These questions should be directed to the HCDO as I am the government Communications Director.” He did not answer the questions about the county government contracts.

Hudson TV then emailed the questions to the HCDO on Oct. 23, asking about the vendor contributions, the $32,000 JCT Solutions in-kind gift, the $44,074.19 debt to Royal Printing Service and the Oct. 21 Liberty House fundraiser, with a Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. deadline. The party had not responded to that email by Monday morning. In a separate Oct. 23 email to Hudson TV regarding contributions from Brennan Courthouse contractors French & Parrello and MAST Construction Services, the HCDO wrote: “Governor Murphy signed the Elections Transparency Act into law in 2023, removing county political party committees from the list of covered contributors. This allows business entities to legally contribute up to the applicable legal limit to county political party committees while remaining eligible for county contracts. Since the law was enacted, this has become common practice throughout the state.”

What it means for Hudson County taxpayers

County contracts for engineering, legal work, IT systems and jail operations are funded through the Hudson County budget and the county portion of local property tax bills. Homeowners across Hudson County who want to see how county and municipal spending affect their tax bill can run a free check with GardenState.ai’s Property Tax Appeal check and estimate how levy increases hit their household with the Tax Shock calculator.

What’s next

• Jan. 15, 2027: Guy’s campaign and the HCDO must file reports covering Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026. That includes money raised at Guy’s Oct. 21 re-election fundraiser at Liberty House in Jersey City.
• Spring 2027: contractors file their 2026 business-entity disclosures with ELEC, listing public contracts and political contributions.
• Hudson TV has open records requests with the county on Johnston G.P. purchases and on the County Executive’s office payroll, both due around Oct. 29.

Related Hudson TV coverage:

• Hudson County kept giving jobs to a contractor who admitted paying bribes — $15 million+ after Guy took office
• Hudson County commissioners approve $25.6 million, 7-year Hindsight computer contract
• Hudson County, N.J., says vendor added the extra IT staff it later cited to justify a higher Hindsight price
• Craig Guy’s office grew from 10 to 15 positions as its payroll budget rose 54.6%
• Hudson County, N.J. sends parks no-show case to inspector general

Hudson TV asks: Should New Jersey ban county contractors from donating to county party committees again, or keep the 2023 law as is? Reply A: Ban contractor donations. Reply B: Keep the 2023 law.
Share your take in the comments.

How Hudson TV did this

Hudson TV downloaded every contribution report filed by Craig Guy’s campaign committees (2023 primary and general, 2027 primary) and by the HCDO from 2022 through the third quarter of 2026: 39 reports from ELEC’s e-filing system. We extracted 3,282 itemized monetary contributions and checked our totals against each report’s own summary page. We matched contributors by firm name or by a named owner or principal against two sources: county commissioners’ regular-meeting agendas from January 2024 through October 2026, and the 2024 and 2025 business-entity annual statements contractors file with ELEC. Gifts from employees who are not named principals were excluded from the totals. Spreadsheets are available on request.

Have a tip about Hudson County contracts? Email info@hudsontv.com.