NEWARK, NJ-The Star-Ledger Sunday published a list of the hundreds of politicians at every level who benefited - however unwittingly - from Birdsall Services Group's illegal campaign donations, which the company admitted to in court earlier this month.

Birdsall's play-to-play schemes were exposed this spring by state prosecutors and led to the engineering firm's bankrupty and subsequent acquisition by Partner Engineering & Science Inc.

The newspaper did not disclose how it came to be in possession of Birdsall company records detailing the secret donations. It said that the records, along with court documents and interviews, provided a "behind-the-scenes look at how Birdsall used money to grease palms and jockey past competitors in the high-stakes race for public contracts."

The paper's analysis of the records concluded that the engineering firm made more than 1,000 secret contributions worth a total of $1.05 million to candidates and political groups over the four-year period between 2008 and 2012.

During that time Birdsall secured more than $84 million in public contract work.

No politician has been charged with wrongdoing in connection with the donations, which were disguised as individual under-limit contibutions from Birdsall employees who were then reimbursed by the company. A dozen office-holders interviewed all said they had not exercised favoritism to Birdsall, or been aware of illegal contributions.

Nevertheless, two said that given Birdsall's admission, they would now donate the amount received as campaign contributions to charity:

* Essec County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat, who rreceived $5,900, according to the Birdsall records, and

* Assemblyman Robert Clifton, a former Republican freeholder in Essex who records show received $7,200 in contributions.

Some of the other recipients include various groups tied to South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross and Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, Senate president Stephen Sweeney, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and all of the current Ocean and Monmouth county freeholders.

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