could a radio show be considered an indirect Financial benefit to a political campaign it's a question that could impact the next gubernatorial election and it's one that the New Jersey election law enforcement commission is investigating following complaints about Republican candidate Bill Spadea's 4 hour show on 101.5 on Friday the commission held a hearing to determine whether or not spia show is free air for his campaign but as senior political correspondent David Cruz reports a formal complaint could be the determining Factor on whether or not spadia keeps a show while running for governor you could call Republican political shock Bill Spadea a lot of things charlatan bigot opportunist are just some of the words people have chosen over the years but few people would call him naive he knows exactly uh what he's doing and he knows the advantage that he's getting from keeping that radio show no of course yes four hours he discusses issues around the state some of them are very political uh some are generally his opinion on things and he's running over Governor which is what the election law enforcement commission acknowledged at a hearing last Friday to examine whether Spadeas radio show constituted an ink kind contribution from Town Square Media which owns the radio station where spia works but the commission took no action they say they're now waiting for a complaint to be filed before they move ahead with anything I'm not an election lawyer I'm a trial lawyer I have no idea what they said so they think it's a problem but they're waiting for a complaint I thought they brought the complaint they're the ones who initiated the investigation now they're going well we initiated investigation now we need somebody in the public to tell us something's wrong sounds like Gog the me for now Spadea will keep his show which recently featured an interview with former president Donald Trump who took a few swipes at jack ciattarelli against whom spadia is also running in the Republican primary for governor it's unclear if that falls into the category of advocacy not entirely defined but certainly not permitted according to elect Spadea's's campaign says they'll wait to see if anyone actually files a complaint before they comment any further but in a letter to Commissioners chedell said it wasn't reasonable to suggest that allowing spadia to be on the radio for four hours per day is not providing his candidacy with a thing of value or contribution this is a win for Bill Spadea there's no question about it this is going to further position him as the outsider candidate this is very much in the Trump model I'm running against the Deep state I'm running against the administrative State um you know they're scared of me this allows him to say that he stared them down and they didn't shut him down spy announced his candidacy a couple of weeks ago by video and follow that up with a live launch where he promised to stay on the radio we're going to continue to do what I've been doing for 9 years you know the other guys they run for office and what do they do they talk at you they tell you what they're going to do they tell you what the resume is then they move on and if they win you don't hear from them until they're up for re-election if they lose well in some cases they just keep on running maybe maybe Jack will get it right someday I don't know not this time not this time El seemed to stumble in its first opportunity to assert its regulatory power sp's attorney chided Commissioners to stay in their Lane and claimed victory for their candidate and for free speech while opponents are left wondering if spia is not just getting a lot of speech for free I 'm David Cruz for NJ Spotlight News [Music]