EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio donors exploited loopholes allowing double-, triple-giving

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EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio donors exploited loopholes allowing double-, triple-giving



Mayor de Blasio — who railed against loopholes as a candidate — was able to raise money on three fronts in the same election cycle, meaning individual donors limited to giving no more than $4,950 per cycle were able to give the maximum twice and even three times.

Mayor de Blasio, who as a candidate spoke against loopholes 'that allow money to permeate our elections,' was able to raise money on three fronts during his campaign.



Mayor de Blasio took political fundraising to new extremes during his come-from-behind campaign, a Daily News review has found.

Deep-pocket donors showered him with checks far in excess of the usual campaign finance limitations, thanks to loopholes that allowed for double- and even triple-giving.

De Blasio was able to raise money on three fronts in the same election cycle: first for his campaign, then for a $300,000 fine he still owed from a 2009 campaign, and finally for his inauguration and transition costs.

That meant individual donors limited to giving no more than $4,950 per election cycle were able to give the maximum amount again and again, writing checks to de Blasio — who railed at loopholes as a candidate — twice and even three times.

PHOTOS: BILL DE BLASIO INAUGURATION

"It compounds the influence one (donor) might have," said Dick Dadey of the non-partisan watchdog Citizens Union. "This the shortcoming of the program that allows current donors to make contributions toward fines that go back to prior campaigns and allows donors to increase their impact on the campaign."

Most of those able to come up with that much cash just happened to be lobbyists, real estate developers and a lineup of special interests who do business with the city.
Anthony Bonomo (left), CEO of Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, gave de Blasio the maximum $4,950 for his 2013 campaign, another $4,950 toward an old 2009 fine, then another $4,500 — the maximum allowed — for the inauguration.

Anthony Bonomo (left), CEO of Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, gave de Blasio the maximum $4,950 for his 2013 campaign, another $4,950 toward an old 2009 fine, then another $4,500 — the maximum allowed — for the inauguration.

By law, individuals aren't supposed to give more than $4,950 per candidate per election, but there are plenty of loopholes that make such a hard-and-fast restriction meaningless.

While running for mayor, candidate de Blasio himself attacked this problem, complaining about "the rich and powerful having their voices heard above the rest of us because of weak laws and loopholes that allow money to permeate our elections."

RELATED: HEALTH CARE UNION EMERGES AS POWERHOUSE AGAIN

Records show de Blasio took full advantage of those loopholes.

At least two donors appear to have set a record — managing to give to de Blasio not once, not twice but three times: once to his campaign, once to his inauguration and once to help him settle the old campaign debt owed for illegally plastering posters all over the city back in 2009.

The top triple-giver was Anthony Bonomo, CEO of Physicians Reciprocal Insurers, one of the state's biggest medical malpractice insurers.

He personally gave de Blasio the maximum $4,950 for his 2013 campaign, another $4,950 toward the old 2009 fine, then another $4,500 — the maximum allowed — for de Blasio's inauguration.
David Kuperberg (right), CEO of Cooper Square Realty, was another triple giver to de Blasio's campaign.
Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News

David Kuperberg (right), CEO of Cooper Square Realty, was another triple giver to de Blasio's campaign.

RELATED: SPEAKER VOTE REPRESENTS VICTORY FOR DE BLASIO'S AGENDA

And that was only the beginning. Bonomo acted as an intermediary for both the 2013 campaign and the inauguration, raising a total of $71,500 from friends and family for de Blasio — more than 14 times the amount an individual is allowed to give.

The other triple-giver was David Kuperberg, CEO of one of the city's biggest real estate brokerages, Cooper Square Realty, who gave de Blasio the max of $4,950 toward the 2009 debt, $4,950 for his mayoral campaign and $4,500 for the inauguration.

Records on donations for the 2009 debt have only been released through July. More triple-givers could surface when de Blasio updates the disclosure forms for the 2009 committee later this week.

A spokesperson for de Blasio's transition team had no problem with the triple-givers: "We couldn't be more proud of the inclusive and transparent transition we've run, and we are humbled by the tremendous support we've received from New Yorkers across the five boroughs."

RELATED: CUOMO MUM ON DE BLASIO IN STATE ADDRESS

For years de Blasio has voiced outrage at the undue influence money has on politics, but his effort to raise money for the inauguration was fairly explicit in providing exclusive face-time with the mayor to those who raised big bucks.

'It compounds the influence one (donor) might have,' says Dick Dadey of the non-partisan watchdog Citizens Union says of double and triple giving.
'It compounds the influence one (donor) might have,' says Dick Dadey of the non-partisan watchdog Citizens Union says of double and triple giving.

At a Dec. 10 fete at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in Times Square, fundraisers designated as "chairs" for that fete had to raise $50,000 but got a private reception with the mayor, while "hosts" who raised $25,000 got an "individual dinner reception."

Many of those who showed up at B.B. King had already written checks for the campaign - including an all-star cast of the city's big-name lobbyists and vendors.

Charles Hocking of Hazen & Sawyer, an engineering firm that does millions of dollars of work for the city, went all out, first raising $22,550 for the campaign, then scaring up another $30,350 for the inauguration.

Sid Davidoff's lobbying firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, raised $9,500 for de Blasio during the campaign, then he came up with another $2,800 for the inauguration.

Jonathan Greenspun of Mercury Public Affairs gave de Blasio $2,450 during the campaign, but raised $23,000 for his inauguration.

All of these lobbyists make good money schmoozing city officials — including the mayor's office — for a host of favors for their clients.

A look at lobbying records shows their clients include every special interest imaginable, from firms that make voting machines to companies seeking cable licenses to vendors angling for contracts

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...mit-loopholes-article-1.1577405#ixzz2qIPGG5Pa

 

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Re: EXCLUSIVE: Mayor de Blasio donors exploited loopholes allowing double-, triple-gi

Wake-Up Call, Jan. 13, 2014

Good morning!


We begin the week of Jan. 13 with looks ahead AND behind at the nascent de Blasio administration, spanning the money that catapulted him to City Hall and the relationships he's had to make (and, so some of his latest sparring partners say, NOT break) to get what he wants...


Mayor de Blasio took political fundraising to new extremes during his come-from-behind campaign, a Daily News review has found. Deep-pocketed donors showered him with checks far in excess of the usual campaign finance limitations, thanks to loopholes that allowed for double and even triple-giving, reports our Greg B. Smith.


De Blasio was able to raise money on three fronts in the same election cycle: first for his campaign, then for a $300,000 fine he still owed from a 2009 campaign, and finally for his inauguration and transition costs. That meant individual donors limited to giving no more than $4,950 per election cycle were able to give the maximum amount again and again, writing checks to de Blasio — who railed at loopholes as a candidate — twice and even three times.

Bill de Blasio. Image: Shawn Inglima/New York Daily News


Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley insists he's buried the hatchet with de Blasio after their bruising battle over the City Council speaker's race, our Erin Durkin reports. De Blasio pushed Council members to vote for now-Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, while Crowley along with the Bronx Democratic Party resisted to the end and backed Dan Garodnick. "We disagreed on a political issue. That's behind us now," said Crowley, who appeared with de Blasio at a Three Kings Day celebration in Corona, Queens. "We've all been in political bouts before. I've won some I've lost some. At the end of the day you move on," said Crowley, who said he's seen de Blasio "a couple times" since Wednesday's vote


NYO: "Mr. Crowley’s reconciliation with Mr. de Blasio did not mean, however, that he would commit to supporting the mayor’s signature proposal: a tax hike on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten. The state legislature and the governor must ultimately sign off on the hike and Mr. Crowley said he would not meddle in their affairs. 'That’s an issue for the state legislature to take up,' Mr. Crowley said, noting that he endorses the general idea of universal pre-K. 'At this point, I would not want to put my legislators in a more difficult position than they are now. That’s something they’re gonna have to grapple with and come to a determination on.'"

Melissa Mark-Viverito. Image: James Keivom/New York Daily News


Mark-Viverito evaded questions this weekend about why she only released her tax returns late Friday night -- two days after firmly securing her spot as speaker: “The information was released as it was made available,” she said, per our Annie Karni, claiming that it could not have been released any earlier than Friday night, well known as the dumping ground for bad news. Speaking briefly to reporters huddled in the rain outside of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Mark-Viverito admitted her failure to disclose additional rental income from her East Harlem home on public Conflict of Interest Board forms “was a mistake." The Daily News' Smith, long prior to the Jan. 8 vote, reported Mark-Viverito failed to report $92,600 in rental income from her East Harlem townhouse on city disclosure forms.


And Mark-Viverito said Sunday that a ban on horse carriages, which de Blasio promised to enact immediately after taking office, in fact may not happen immediately, Cap NY notes. "We have 20 new colleagues that have come in, so obviously a new level of debate has to happen, and a new level of engagement has to happen with regards to this conversation," Mark-Viverito said in an interview on "Up Close with Diana Williams" on WABC.


C&S: City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, elected in November to a second term representing lower Manhattan, raised more than $30,000 for her inauguration expenses, which she appears to have used to pay bonuses to her campaign staff and for an elaborate “fundraiser.”


Speaking of cash flow... Upstate, the NYT in Saratoga Springs: "With its rich history of horse racing and a 19th-century gambling parlor so opulent that it drew comparisons to Monte Carlo, this upstate enclave would seem to be a natural choice to receive one of the state’s new full-scale casinos.Yet what was once thought to be a fait accompli — that the casino designated for the capital region would wind up in Saratoga — is no longer a sure thing, and much of that is because of a coordinated resistance from many residents and business owners."


And in Albany, state Senate Democrats will head into this year’s crucial fight for the control of the chamber debt free for the first time in three years, our Ken Lovett reports: The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee will report this week that over the past six months it paid down the remaining $665,000 of what had been a $3.1 million debt in January 2011, said Sen. Michael Gianaris, the Queens Democrat who heads the committee.


Buffalo-area state Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak announced under heavy pressure Sunday that he would step down amidst the furor over sexual harassment allegations leveled at him by female workers -- but insisted he did nothing wrong. Our Glenn Blain reports Gabryszak, 62, said he was retiring because of the impact the scandal was having on his family and on the Assembly -- but flatly denied ever making requests for or having “sexual contact” with any members of his staff.


Across the river...
Chris Christie. Image: Evans/AP

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “did a great job” reacting to the unfolding Bridgegate scandal this week, according to Judy Smith, the Washington political fixer who inspired the Olivia Pope character on TV show "Scandal,” our Adam Edelman reports. “I think he did a good first step. I think the press conference, he did a great job. He set the message narrative at the top,” Smith, who is played in the show by Kerry Washington, told ABC’s “ This Week” on Sunday. “He apologized. He took responsibility. He made some swift actions.”


Mike Lupica: "Does it finish him as a presidential candidate? Are you kidding — did Gennifer Flowers finish Bill Clinton when he was first running for President? No, this finishes Christie only if he’s lying when he says that he didn’t know anything about the lane closures beforehand. If he’s telling the truth, he just comes up as a political bully whose administration turns out to be a training school for other bullies in New Jersey."


"New Jersey lawmakers could issue new subpoenas for documents and sworn testimony as soon as Monday in their investigation into controversial lane closures at the George Washington Bridge, carried out by Gov. Chris Christie's aides," reports the WSJ: "Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democrat leading a legislative inquiry into the bridge fallout, has said he plans to call several figures named in internal correspondence released last week to testify in Trenton about who authorized the closures and why."

International: Israelis massed outside the national parliament building Sunday to pay their final respects to former prime minister and military leader Ariel Sharon, who died Saturday at age 85, our Simone Weichselbaum and Daniel Beekman report: Somber visitors streamed past Sharon's flag-draped coffin in Jerusalem while Jews in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and around the world prepared to commemorate the life of the Israeli icon, who some will remember as a freedom fighter and others as a war criminal.
Image: Oded Balilty/AP

And in Washington: "Mirroring problems with the federal Obamacare website, people around the nation attempting to navigate the Spanish version have discovered their own set of difficulties," the AP reports: "The site, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, launched more than two months late. A Web page with Spanish instructions linked users to an English form. And the translations were so clunky and full of grammatical mistakes that critics say they must have been computer-generated — the name of the site itself can literally be read 'for the caution of health.'"


Quieter times? "By the numbers, the Supreme Court is headed for a great fallow period," writes the WaPo. "Over the approximately next 100 days, it will hear oral argument in only 25 cases. Despite taking eight new pleas Friday, the court’s workload this term might reach a new low: In its March sitting, it will consider only half its usual number of cases."


The Federal Railroad Administration will require inward- and outward-facing cameras in all train cars throughout the country, two lawmakers said Sunday. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D.-Conn.) pushed for the cameras after a Metro-North train derailed Dec. 1 near Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, killing four people, our Jamille Sutton writes. The engineer told investigators he was in a tired “daze” before the crash.

From "HRC: State Secrets And The Rebirth Of Hillary Clinton": "There was a special circle of Clinton hell reserved for people who had endorsed Obama or stayed on the fence after Bill and Hillary had raised money for them, appointed them to a political post or written a recommendation to ice their kid’s application to an elite school. On one early draft of the hit list, each Democratic member of Congress was assigned a numerical grade from 1 to 7, with the most helpful to Hillary earning 1s and the most treacherous drawing 7s. The set of 7s included Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Baron Hill (D-Ind.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.)."

Chelsea and Hillary Clinton. Image: Stan Honda/Getty

Democrats were dismissing talk over the weekend that Chelsea Clinton is preparing to seek the Long Island congressional seat being vacated by Carolyn McCarthy, who is retiring because of health woes, reports our Ken Lovett: A source from Clinton's office called the speculation of a possible run "categorically false." A top Nassau County Dem, meanwhile, said "while she'd make a terrific congresswoman," there have been no discussions by the Clintons or locally about a Chelsea Clinton run.

From our Ken Lovett in Albany:

* Primary madness begins this week. The Assembly as early as today is expected to pass a bill moving the state and local primaries for this year to the fourth Tuesday of June, matching the recent federal court order for the congressional primaries. The state and local primaries are set for September. The Assembly has been trying to move them to June for several years to meet a federal law requiring military personnel and those living abroad have enough time to receive and send in their general election ballots. Without a change, the state is set to have two primary days this year, which would cost localities an additional $50 million. Two years ago, the state had three separate primary days, one for the presidential, one for congressional and one for state and local races. In the state Senate, the GOP wants to move the primary date to August while Sen. Jeffrey Klein, who heads a breakaway group of four Democrats that control the chamber with the Republicans, wants to keep the day in September. Opponents say a June primary will mess with the scheduled June end of the legislative session. The mainstream Senate Dems, like their Assembly counterparts, support a June primary.

* The "will he or won’t he?" game involving whether Assemblyman Micah Kellner will return to Albany will continue today, with the focus sharpened by WNY Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak's Sunday bow-out from the chamber as both face harassment allegations. Manhattan Democrat Kellner was sanctioned last month by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver after the chamber’s Ethics Committee found he created a hostile work environment and violated the chamber’s sexual harassment policy. He did not attend Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address last week. A source close to Kellner said he was sick over the weekend and wasn’t sure if he was going to make it up to Albany this week. The Assembly is scheduled to be in session today and Tuesday. Kellner is seeking to appeal the sanctions imposed by Silver.

From our James Warren in Washington:

* The Senate has its latest procedural vote on a bill extending expired federal unemployment benefits. A near deal between Democrats and a group of Republicans collapsed last Thursday amid GOP complaints that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would not allow them to offer amendments to the bill. If lawmakers cannot work out a deal Monday, Republicans look likely to deny the measure the 60 votes it needs to advance.

* Watch out for new data on Obamacare signups Monday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is set to announce new numbers on healthcare.gov.

* If you can solve the basic problems of higher education in 140 characters, you deserve a medal. Education Secretary Arne Duncan moderates a #StuVoice Twitter chat, beginning at 8:30 p.m., "to gather feedback from students on how to keep college affordable and how the administration's college rating system can be useful for students and families." Try your luck on Twitter through the #stuvoice hashtag and follow @ArneDuncan and @Stu_Voice.

From our Bramhall's World:

Leaders’ Lineup:

President Obama
10:30 AM: Receives the Presidential Daily Briefing, Oval Office

2:15 PM: Holds a bilateral meeting with President Mariano Rajoy Brey of Spain

Gov. Cuomo is in Albany

Mayor de Blasio

2:00 PM: Meets with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Cardinal’s Residence, 452 Madison Ave., Manhattan

2:45 PM: Holds Photo Spray with Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Cardinal’s Residence, 452 Madison Ave., Manhattan

Tuning In:

"Morning Drive," AM 970, 6 a.m.: Joe Piscopo hosts guests including former NJ Gov. Tom Kean and Johnny Carson’s former attorney, Henry Bushkin.

“The Brian Lehrer Show,” WNYC 93.9 FM, 10 a.m.: "The Toll of Bridgegate; New at the New School; Isaac Asimov's 2014 Predictions, Today."

"Inside City Hall,” NY1 News, 7 pm: Discussion of recent Brooklyn homicides, headlined by City Councilman Jumaane Williams and Borough President Eric Adams.

A. Some of that cannot be explained away as goosebumps. B. Careful where you sit!

News tips, schedules or suggestions?

Email us -- and follow @DNDailyPolitics,@CelesteKatzNYC and our NYDN political team on Twitter!

Read more: http://live.nydailynews.com/Event/Wake-Up_Call_Jan_13_2014#ixzz2qIRblWDy