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Democrat · New Jersey Senate, district 19

Serving since Jan 13, 1998NJ 2026–27 session

Portrait of Joe Vitale, rendered as a two-tone print
Official portrait
74%
of itemized money from New Jersey donors, in the bottom quarter of State Senate Democrats

74% of the itemized money from individuals in the 2026 cycle came from donors with an address in New Jersey. Ranks 609th of 714, where 1st is the highest share. 29 itemized donors.

Only donors who give more than $200 are reported with an address, so this is the share of that itemized money from donors living in New Jersey, ranked among State Senate Democrats. Small gifts are not counted either way. Candidates running statewide or for federal office often draw more money from out of state.

At a glance

4 measures against State Senate Democrats. 6.7% of the 149 bills Vitale sponsored got out of committee, in the top half of the New Jersey Senate. Vitale reported $80.1K in the 2026 cycle, in the top half of State Senate Democrats (median $55.5K).

The measures on which Vitale sits furthest from the middle of State Senate Democrats, each against the same group, with the CSIP score when there is one. Every number is explained in its own section below.

From New Jersey, 2026

74%

Of itemized individual dollars · ranks 609th of 714 State Senate Democrats

Out of committee

6.7%

New Jersey Senate average 6.3% · ranks 13th of 40

Itemized, 2026

$80.1K

State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K · ranks 313th of 746

CSIP ideology

−0.68

More liberal than 56% of State Senate Democrats · ± 0.08

Statements

No statements in this window

Bills sponsored

149

and 21 cosponsored

Peer group: State Senate Democrats. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; the thick bar is Vitale, the thin grey bar the peer average. The headline is the measure on which Vitale is most unusual among peers (Methods, §08).

Back to topNext: What politicians say

What Vitale says

No statements for the NJ 2026–27 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Policy

Policy

No policy statements for the NJ 2026–27 session.No classified statements (posts, press releases, newsletters, floor speeches) in this time window.

Back to topNext: Ideology

Ideology

Vitale sits at −0.68 on the CSIP scale, left of 0, more liberal than 56% of State Senate Democrats. Approximate range −0.76 to −0.60, which understates the uncertainty; from 160 donors and 770 roll calls.

CSIP, the lab’s Common-Space Ideal Point, places every official, federal and state, on one left–right scale, estimated from roll-call votes, who gives money to whom, and the text of statements. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it; 0 is the centre of the scale, not a definition of “moderate”.

−0.68

CSIP ideal point

Approximate range −0.76 to −0.60. From 160 donors and 770 roll calls. Run 2026-10-25T215945. Blue is left of 0, red right of 0.

← More liberalMore conservative →0Vitale −0.7State Senate Democrats −0.7New Jersey Senate −0.5All State Senate +0.1

The outlined dot is Vitale, coloured by its side of 0 (blue left, red right, deeper further out); the bar through it is the approximate range (±1.96 standard errors), which understates the uncertainty; the grey ticks below are the medians of Vitale’s groups. 0 is the centre of the scale, not “moderate” by definition.

What this means, and what it doesn’t

The score summarises how an official votes, who funds them and how they talk, relative to everyone else. It does not grade positions as good or bad, and two officials with the same score can differ on any single issue. The ± range is 1.96 standard errors, which understates the uncertainty: scores whose ranges overlap may not differ at all, and even scores whose ranges do not overlap may not differ.

Where Vitale sits

Every official in each group, on the CSIP scale

−2.0−1.00.0+1.0+2.0← More liberalMore conservative →State Senate Democratsmedian −0.7Vitale −0.7New Jersey Senatemedian −0.5All State Senatemedian +0.1
Show the data
Vitale's CSIP score of −0.68 placed against State Senate Democrats, New Jersey Senate, All State Senate.
GroupOfficialsMedianShare left of Vitale
State Senate Democrats825−0.744%
New Jersey Senate40−0.525%
All State Senate1909+0.119%
How to read the strips

Every small dot is one official on the same scale, coloured by its own score (blue left of 0, red right of 0, grey at 0, deeper further out) and spread up and down only to keep dots apart; where a group is crowded the dots overlap, and darker patches mean more officials. The large outlined dot is Vitale in every row; the rule is each group’s median. The table under the figure gives the share of each group to the left of Vitale.

Back to topNext: Money

Money

Vitale reported $80.1K in the 2026 cycle, above the State Senate Democrats’ median of $55.5K. State filings report no small-donation total. 74% of itemized individual money came from New Jersey.

Campaign money from state campaign-finance filings, as aggregates only; the lab never shows an individual donor. Campaigns must report by name every person who gives them more than $200 in a cycle (“itemized”); smaller gifts are reported only as one total (“unitemized”), so donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations describe itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift total, so these figures add up itemized contributions only.

Election cycle
$80.1K

itemized in the 2026 cycle

From 29 itemized donors. State Senate Democrats’ median $55.5K.

Where the money came from

Each square is one percent of itemized contributions in the 2026 cycle.

Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)Individuals (itemized): $21.8K (27.3%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)PACs and other committees: $58.3K (72.7%)
  • Individuals (itemized)27 squares$21.8K
  • PACs and other committees73 squares$58.3K
Show the data
Sources of Vitale's money, 2026 cycle, one square per percent
SourceAmountShare
Individuals (itemized)$21.8K27.3%
PACs and other committees$58.3K72.7%
What this means, and what it doesn’t

Totals say how much a campaign took in, not how it was spent, and they rise sharply when a seat is up for election; compare cycles with that in mind.

Receipts by cycle

Itemized contributions, 2020 to 2026. The grey line is the State Senate Democrats’ median for 2026.

2020 cycle: $60.8K$60.8K20202022 cycle: $127.2K$127.2K20222024 cycle: $362.6K$362.6K20242026 cycle: $80.1K$80.1K2026State Senate Democrats median $55.5K
Show the data
Vitale's receipts by cycle against the 2026 State Senate Democrats median.
ItemValue
2020 cycle$60.8K
2022 cycle$127.2K
2024 cycle$362.6K
2026 cycle$80.1K

Top donor states, 2026

Itemized contributions by donor state. 74% came from New Jersey.

  1. New Jersey$16.3K
  2. New York$2,000
  3. Pennsylvania$1,485
  4. Florida$1,205
  5. Delaware$500

Small donations

State filings report no total for small gifts.

Not reported in state filings.

Where itemized donors live

Individuals who gave more than $200, by donor state

Alaska: no dataAKMaine: no dataMEVermont: no dataVTNew Hampshire: no dataNHWashington: no dataWAIdaho: no dataIDMontana: no dataMTNorth Dakota: no dataNDMinnesota: no dataMNIllinois: no dataILWisconsin: no dataWIMichigan: no dataMINew York: $2,000NYRhode Island: no dataRIMassachusetts: $400MAOregon: no dataORNevada: no dataNVWyoming: no dataWYSouth Dakota: no dataSDIowa: no dataIAIndiana: no dataINOhio: no dataOHPennsylvania: $1,485PANew Jersey: $16.3KNJConnecticut: no dataCTCalifornia: no dataCAUtah: no dataUTColorado: no dataCONebraska: no dataNEMissouri: no dataMOKentucky: no dataKYWest Virginia: no dataWVVirginia: no dataVAMaryland: no dataMDDelaware: $500DEArizona: no dataAZNew Mexico: no dataNMKansas: no dataKSArkansas: no dataARTennessee: no dataTNNorth Carolina: no dataNCSouth Carolina: no dataSCDistrict of Columbia: no dataDCOklahoma: no dataOKLouisiana: no dataLAMississippi: no dataMSAlabama: no dataALGeorgia: no dataGAHawaii: no dataHITexas: no dataTXFlorida: $1,205FL
Show the data
Vitale's itemized individual contributions by donor state, 2026 cycle
StateValue
New Jersey$16.3K
New York$2,000
Pennsylvania$1,485
Florida$1,205
Delaware$500
Massachusetts$400
AlaskaNo data
MaineNo data
VermontNo data
New HampshireNo data
WashingtonNo data
IdahoNo data
MontanaNo data
North DakotaNo data
MinnesotaNo data
IllinoisNo data
WisconsinNo data
MichiganNo data
Rhode IslandNo data
OregonNo data
NevadaNo data
WyomingNo data
South DakotaNo data
IowaNo data
IndianaNo data
OhioNo data
ConnecticutNo data
CaliforniaNo data
UtahNo data
ColoradoNo data
NebraskaNo data
MissouriNo data
KentuckyNo data
West VirginiaNo data
VirginiaNo data
MarylandNo data
ArizonaNo data
New MexicoNo data
KansasNo data
ArkansasNo data
TennesseeNo data
North CarolinaNo data
South CarolinaNo data
District of ColumbiaNo data
OklahomaNo data
LouisianaNo data
MississippiNo data
AlabamaNo data
GeorgiaNo data
HawaiiNo data
TexasNo data
29

itemized donors

People who gave more than $200

74%

from New Jersey

Of itemized individual dollars

How to read the map

Every state the same size. Darker states gave more itemized money; hatched states had no itemized donors; the outlined state is New Jersey. Gifts of $200 or less carry no address and are left out.

Top donor occupations

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. MANAGEMENT/ADMINISTRATOR/EXECUTIVE$8,690 9 donors
  2. LOBBYISTS/GOVERNMENT RELATIONS$6,000 5 donors
  3. ATTORNEY$3,650 9 donors

Top committees

PAC and committee contributions, 2026 cycle.

  1. NJ ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE PAC$5,000
  2. DUANE MORRIS LLP GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE STATE & LOCA L FUND$4,000
  3. NJ DENTAL ASSOCIATION PAC$3,500
  4. CWA NJ PEC$3,000
  5. LOCAL 68 IUOE PAC$2,500

Top employers

Itemized, 2026 cycle.

  1. MCCARTER & ENGLISH LLP$900 5 donors

Aggregates only. Individual donors are never named.

Back to topNext: Votes

Votes

No roll-call votes for the NJ 2026–27 session.No roll-call votes are recorded for this official in this time window.

Back to topNext: Legislation

Legislation

Vitale sponsored 149 bills in the NJ 2026–27 session; none became law. Cosponsored 21 others. 6.7% of sponsored bills got out of committee (New Jersey Senate average 6.3%; 13th of 40).

The bills Vitale sponsored and cosponsored in the NJ 2026–27 session, from the official bill records, and how far each got: introduced, referred to or acted on in committee, passed one chamber, passed both, became law. A bill counts at every stage it has reached, so the blocks only shrink to the right.

Bills by stage

Counts for the NJ 2026–27 session

Sponsored149 billsSponsored, Introduced: 149149Sponsored, In committee: 149149Sponsored, Passed one chamber: 1010Sponsored, Passed both chambers: 88Sponsored, Became law: 00Cosponsored21 billsCosponsored, Introduced: 2121Cosponsored, In committee: 2121Cosponsored, Passed one chamber: 00Cosponsored, Passed both chambers: 00Cosponsored, Became law: 00IntroducedIncommitteePassed onechamberPassed bothchambersBecamelaw
Show the data
Bills Vitale sponsored and cosponsored, by furthest stage reached
RoleIntroducedIn committeePassed one chamberPassed both chambersBecame law
Sponsored1491491080
Cosponsored2121000
How to read the blocks

Ink blocks are bills Vitale sponsored, ochre blocks bills Vitale cosponsored; the figure above each block is the count. Most bills in any legislature never leave committee, so a short staircase is the norm.

6.7%

of sponsored bills got out of committee

New Jersey Senate average 6.3%. Ranks 13th of 40.

Cosponsorship partners

Colleagues who most often cosponsor with Vitale, by number of shared bills in the NJ 2026–27 session; the square shows their party.

  1. Patrick Diegnan42
  2. Angela McKnight40
  3. Shirley Turner27
  4. Vin Gopal27
  5. Raj Mukherji26
What this means, and what it doesn’t

The score is the share of sponsored bills that a committee reported out or a chamber passed, with at least 5 sponsored bills, ranked within the peer group. Members of the majority party and committee chairs move more bills, so the rank reflects position in the chamber as well as effort. Cosponsorship partners are the five colleagues who share the most of Vitale’s bills; the toggle shows more.

Bill list

Sponsored and cosponsored, with status and policy area; five are shown, the toggle shows the rest

Bills sponsored and cosponsored
S 4857Expands responsibilities of Newborn Screening Advisory Review Committee.SponsorOct 19, 2026In committeeHealth(model)Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Oct 19, 2026
S 4820Permits licensed hospitals to establish micro-hospitals under certain conditions.SponsorOct 15, 2026In committeeHealth(model)Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Oct 15, 2026
S 4793Establishes and requires use of Medicaid preferred drug list.SponsorOct 8, 2026In committeeHealth(model)Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Oct 8, 2026
S 4684Requires youth serving organization to adopt and implement "Air Quality Participation Policy" established by Commissioner of Health.SponsorOct 1, 2026In committeeHealth(model)Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Oct 1, 2026
S 4687Establishes Basic Health Program for low-income individuals who are ineligible for Medicaid.SponsorOct 1, 2026In committeeHealth(model)Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee Oct 1, 2026

Back to topNext: Online

Online

A site that has not changed in 90 days. Vitale’s official site had 1 page when last crawled on Oct 1, 2026.

The lab crawls Vitale’s official and campaign websites (weekly for Congress, monthly for the states) and keeps every page’s text, so changes can be read later; it also records social accounts and describes the images Vitale posts with a vision model.

Websites

How to read the counts

“Pages crawled” is the size of the site at the last crawl; “changes in 90 days” counts pages whose text differed from the previous crawl. Sites change for many routine reasons, such as new press releases, so a high count is not by itself notable.

Social accounts

Images Vitale posted

No images from Vitale’s posts have been described.

About the descriptions

Written by a vision model and may be wrong. Open the post to see the original. Five are shown; the toggle shows the rest.

State floor speeches

No transcribed state floor speeches are matched to this legislator yet.

Floor speeches

Transcribed from chamber video or captions by the lab. They are not classified for kinds of statement.

Back to topNext: Methods and sources

Methods and sources

How this page was made. Profile built Oct 28, 2026; site last built Oct 28, 2026. Every number on the page is computed from the sources listed here, by the same rules for every official; nothing is written by hand.

The headline

The headline is the measure on which Vitale is most unusual among State Senate Democrats, chosen by one rule for every official of every party. The candidates are the rate of each kind of statement and of extreme labels, party unity, attendance, the small-donor share, the in-state share and total receipts of the latest cycle, the share of sponsored bills that got out of committee, talk-to-bills agreement, and the CSIP score’s place within the party group.

The builder ranks every measure within the same peer group the page compares it with, and writes each official’s percentile: the share of the group below the value, ties counting half, so 0.5 is the median and a value shared by many never ranks first. A measure’s score is how far that percentile sits from the median (0 in the middle, 0.5 at either end), and the highest score leads if it is above 0.25, outside the middle half of the group. Scores within 0.03 of each other are a tie, broken in this order: votes against the party majority, kinds of statement, ideology, roll calls missed, small donations, in-state money, legislation, agreement, extreme labels, receipts.

A measure counts only with at least 200 statements, 100 roll calls or 5 sponsored bills behind it and a peer group of at least 10. Two things never lead: high party unity or attendance, where most members sit, and a high rate of a kind of statement backed by fewer than 10 statements. When nothing qualifies, the headline is a neutral fact instead: statements classified, or years in office. The wording always names the direction (“in the bottom 5% of …”, “votes against the majority of …”).

Identifiers

Profile id
97fba3ff-adc8-4323-bf77-37acfe18b735
Open States
ocd-person/97fba3ff-adc8-4323-bf77-37acfe18b735

Bulk files with the same data for every official:

Freshness of this profile’s data

  • What politicians sayOct 27, 20261 days agoMembers of Congress: tweets since 2017; press releases, newsletters and floor speeches since 2022. State legislators: tweets since May 2024. Governors: tweets since January 2025. Labels from an LLM classifier.
  • Roll calls (state)Oct 21, 20267 days agoOpen States floor roll calls, 2019 on (none for AK and MO).
  • Bills (state)Oct 28, 2026todayOpen States bills and sponsors, 2019 on; stages from roll calls.
  • Campaign money (state)no dateState campaign-finance agencies, 2019 on; aggregates only.
  • Ideology (CSIP)Oct 25, 20263 days agoCommon-Space Ideal Points (CSIP), current validated run.
  • WebsitesOct 25, 20263 days agoWeekly crawls of federal sites since April 2026; monthly state crawls since June 2026.
  • State floor speechesOct 21, 20267 days agoState floor speech turns (published transcripts and captions), 2020 on; not LLM-classified.

How the measures work

What politicians say
Every post, press release, newsletter and congressional floor speech is read by a language model and marked for personal attacks, policy criticism, policy discussion, bipartisanship and credit claiming. A statement can be in several. Rates are shares of statements in the window. The methods paper.
Extreme labels
A statement has an extreme label when it calls a politician, party or policy “far left”, “far right”, “MAGA”, “extreme”, “radical”, “woke”, “fascist” or “communist”. The target is who the label is aimed at.
Policy areas and agreement
Statements and bills share 25 Congressional Research Service policy areas (state bills are assigned by a language model). Agreement is 1 − Jensen–Shannon distance between the two distributions, shown with at least 20 policy statements and 5 bills.
Ideology (CSIP)
Common-Space Ideal Points place federal and state officials on one left–right scale, estimated jointly from roll calls, campaign contributions and the text of statements, with standard errors. Only a validated run is shown. The methods paper.
Campaign money
Campaigns report by name only donors who give more than $200 in a cycle; smaller gifts are reported as one total. Federal totals and the small-donor share come from the FEC’s financial summaries of each campaign committee. Donor counts, donor states, employers and occupations cover itemized donors only. State filings report no small-gift totals, so state figures are itemized only. The lab never publishes donor names.
Votes and key votes
Attendance, party unity and the count of votes against the majority of an official’s own party come from roll calls (Voteview for Congress, chamber records for the states). Key votes are final-passage or override votes that became law, were decided by under 10%, saw at least 10% of a party vote against its majority, or concerned one of the 25 bills most mentioned in officials’ statements.
Peers and ranks
Comparisons are with the same party, chamber and level (for example House Democrats); state legislators are compared within their state and chamber for votes. Every comparison names its group. Rank 1 is the highest value in the group; tied values share the average of their ranks, and the percentile is the share of the group below the value, ties counting half.

America’s Political Pulse · Polarization Research Lab

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