A super PAC backing Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid has already raised massive donations totaling $2.3 million — including from real-estate interests and big shots in the past week, new records reveal.
Among the honchos who recently donated to the former governor’s “Fix The City” super PAC is billionaire Stephen Ross, founder and chairman of Related Companies, who kicked in $50,000.
His firm developed Hudson Yards.
He also owns the Miami Dolphins.
Billionaire construction magnate John Fish also forked over $250,000, show records filed with the state Board of Elections.
His New-England-based Suffolk Construction firm has a Big Apple office and worked on the renovation of the Waldorf Astoria, among other projects.
Lawyer Joseph Belluck, who chairs the State University of New York Board of Trustees panel on charter schools, kicked in $100,000, as did RFR Holdings, a real-estate firm founded by Michael Fuchs and Aby Rosen.
The Fix The City super PAC can raise an unlimited level of contributions as opposed to the campaigns of candidates, which can only collect a maximum of $2,100 from donors if they request public matching funds.
Fix the City was created by close associates of Cuomo in the past few weeks.
The Cuomo campaign and Fix The City are barred under the law from coordinating campaign activities.
Another super PAC has been formed to support mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a lefty state assemblyman from Queens.
The group is called New Yorkers for Lower Costs.
It has yet to report any contributions.
Mamdani on Monday said that with public matching funds, he has raised $8 million to back his campaign for City Hall, with lefties such as “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon raising money for him.
Government watchdog groups have griped that the Super Political Action Committees — known as independent expenditure groups — are an end-run around the campaign system. But they’re legal under a controversial US Supreme Court ruling.
New York City has strict limitations on donors who have business before the city.
They can only donate $400 directly to a candidate.
“This is kryptonite for the city campaign finance system,” John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany,” said of the super PACS.
“These super PACs are a way to get around donation limits to candidates from people with business before the city.
“It allows pay to play,” he said.
Super PACs in 2021 raised $7.8 million to support Eric Adams’ successful mayoral election.
Cuomo leads the Democratic primary field with 41% of the vote, followed by Mamdani with 18%, a poll conducted by Bradley Honan for the Tusk Strategy group found.
City Comptroller Brad Lander gets 8% of the vote, followed by Adams with 6% support and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Speaker Adrienne Adams with 4% backing each, while. 15% of primary voters remain undecided.
Read the full article here