Group Aiding de Blasio Spent $1.7 Million in First Half of ’14 (NY Times - July 15, 2014) NYC Education News: New York City Department of Education EXCERPT: A lobbying group set up by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign strategists spent close to $1.7 million in his first six months in office to promote his agenda and accomplishments, according to records filed with the state on Tuesday. To judge from its expenditures, the group’s purpose seems to be less to push for Mr. de Blasio’s proposals than to make sure that he gets credit for his achievements afterward. By far the biggest expenditure, $950,000, was on a television ad celebrating the mayor’s victory in getting money from the state to expand prekindergarten programs. The group, which is called Campaign for One New York, was previously known as UPKNYC. It raised nearly $1.8 million, much of it from labor unions, including the American Federation of Teachers; 1199 S.E.I.U., the health care workers’ union; and Unite Here, the hotel workers’ union formerly headed by a cousin of Mr. de Blasio. The Rockefeller Family Fund, which publicly supported Mr. de Blasio’s prekindergarten plan, contributed $250,000. A spokesman for the lobbying group, Jonathan Rosen, emphasized its early focus on education, saying it “engaged tens of thousands of New Yorkers in the successful fight to make universal pre-K and after-school a reality, through community organizing and grass-roots lobbying.” The group was required to disclose expenditures and contributions of $5,000 or more toward lobbying, but chose to disclose all its contributors. Among them were several real estate developers, including JSR Capital ($50,000), the Toll Brothers ($25,000), Argent Ventures ($10,000) and Donald Capoccia (10,000). Several taxi companies; a lawyer and former taxi commissioner, Matthew Daus; and Frias Transportation Infrastructure, a company that has developed technology to record taxis’ trips, also contributed. Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, gave $50,000; Alexander Levin, a real estate developer, contributed $20,000; and Wendy Neu, the chief executive of an electronics recycling firm who last year supported a political action committee devoted to defeating Christine C. Quinn in the mayoral race, contributed $25,000. On May 28, Campaign for One New York paid Mr. de Blasio’s pollster, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, over $48,000 to conduct a survey. A spokesman for the group, Dan Levitan, would not say what the poll was about.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 00:58:10 +0000
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