Tonight on News 12, #murphy4senate details this Daily News Exclusive: Mayor de Blasio steered at least one massive donation to an upstate Democratic committee that promptly funneled the money to two state Senate candidates — taking advantage of a huge loophole in campaign finance rules. The donation, for $50,000, was made by supermarket mogul and failed 2013 mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis to the Putnam County Democratic Committee on Oct. 14, records show. Catsimatidis said he made the contribution at the request of the mayor, after they spoke at the Al Smith Foundation dinner Oct. 1. “I do a lot of business in the city,” Catsimatidis said. “I saw the mayor at an event. He asked me for a favor and I wrote the check. ... I just wanted to show an indication I was willing to work with him.” The $50,000 donation was one of nine contributions, totaling $452,000, that landed in the Putnam County Democratic Committee’s account Oct. 9 and 14. Days later, on Oct. 15 and 17, the committee transferred $433,000 to the campaigns of state Sen. Terry Gipson and Senate hopeful Justin Wagner, two Hudson Valley Democrats whose races could decide which party controls the state Senate. State campaign finance rules prohibit donations of more than $10,300 to an individual candidate. But donors can give as much as $103,000 to county political committees, and those committees can transfer unlimited amounts of money to individual campaigns. Told about the money that made its way to the Gipson and Wagner campaigns, Bill Mahoney of the New York Public Interest Research Group said, “This clearly seems like an attempt to circumvent contribution limits.” The hefty donations also were notable because the Putnam County Democratic Committee had not received a check for more than $1,000 in at least 15 years. De Blasio is helping to lead a coalition of unions and activists who have been working to reclaim the state Senate for the Dems. Catsimatidis said that a day after he spoke with de Blasio at the Al Smith dinner, de Blasio’s former campaign finance director, Ross Offinger, followed up with a call to the mogul’s office to say where to donate and how much. Catsimatidis said he did not ask for, and was not promised, anything in return. The cascade of money into the Putnam County Democratic Committee included $100,000 sent by Alexis Lodde, founder of a Dallas-based transportation company that has dozens of city school bus contracts and a contract in Putnam County. It appeared to be the first donation Lodde has ever made to a New York campaign. It was not clear who asked him to give, and why he gave. He did not return a phone call seeking comment. Four labor unions, including the Communications Workers of America District 1, and 32BJ SEIU, gave $237,000 to the Putnam County committee. A de Blasio spokesman did not deny that the mayor helped to raise money for the Putnam committee, but said de Blasio did not personally ask city contractors to give. De Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan said, “The mayor is proud to support Democrats who will fight for women’s equality, the middle class and raising the minimum wage.” Ironically, De Blasio and his coalition hope a Democratic Senate means the state would enact campaign finance reform. A Democratic operative defended the practice, noting that city interests like Wall Street bankers and real estate developers have given millions of dollars to independent campaign committees supporting upstate Senate GOP races. He also said it’s not uncommon for county committees to help campaigns—though the size of the money donated to the Putnam County committee and then transferred was far more than usual. Putnam County Democratic Chairman Ken Harper said, “We were just fortunate to receive the money.” He insisted he was given no heads up that the money would be donated, and he said his committee was not told how to spend it.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:43:03 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015