ALBANY, NY – On the way to building one of the largest campaign chests New York State has ever seen, Governor Kathy Hochul took money from governor appointees – despite an executive order designed to prevent it.
In her first year in office, Hochul received more than $400,000 from board appointees from Buffalo to Battery Park City as well as spouses of appointees, an analysis by New The York Times on campaign finance data showed.
The fundraising took place despite a long-standing executive order – re-issued by Ms Hochul on her first day in office – banning such transactions to avoid even the appearance of rewarding donors. supported by work in exchange for contributions.
Ms. Hochul’s campaign said it was appropriate to accept donations because they came from people appointed by her predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo. The argument highlighted a loophole in the moral order that appears to allow one governor to receive money from another governor’s board and designees. In some cases, Hochul received donations from people Cuomo appointed and then appointed them.
Ms Hochul’s campaign spokesman, Jerrel Harvey, said Ms Hochul had not accepted money from people she had appointed and stressed that all of her fundraising had been given.
“We have been clear from the very beginning of Governor Hochul’s term that her appointees will not receive donations when they are appointed,” Mr. Harvey said. “We’ve followed that simple standard consistently and rigorously.”
But legal expert and good government advocates have questioned Ms. Hochul’s reasoning.
“It is a silly argument to say that if I appoint you you cannot contribute to me, but if my predecessor appointed you, then I can beat you to donate,” Bruce Green, Professor at Fordham University Law School and a former member of the New York City Conflict of Interest Board. “Going forward, perhaps, both want to be reappointed.”
The donations Ms. Hochul received from her appointees represent only a small fraction of her campaign’s bulk ahead of the November election. She’s raised about $35 million and set a goal. double that amount, people familiar with her plan speak. Doing so would make the 2022 gubernatorial race the most expensive or near the most expensive in state history.
Hochul, a Democrat sworn in as governor after Cuomo stepped down in a scandal last year, easily defeated two main rivals this summer and was in great favor when she won. won over Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican, in the fall.
Although she has promised to completely break the way of her predecessor, Ms. Hochul’s willingness to raise money from appointees goes against that commitment. Mr. Cuomo is known for taking a hawkish approach to solicit donations from people he appoints, raise ethical concerns.
Records show that Ms. Hochul’s campaign has not shrunk from accepting donations from people appointed by Mr. Cuomo, receiving more than $250,000 from them.
She received more than $56,000 from real estate developer Don Capoccia, whom Cuomo appointed to the Battery Park City Authority in 2011 and who did not respond to a request for comment.
She received more than $90,000 between October and May from a probationary attorney, Joe Belluck, whom Cuomo selected for two statewide boards, and his wife. Hochul appointed Mr. Belluck to the state’s new Cannabis Advisory Board in June.
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Mr. Belluck scoffed at the point of any inappropriateness in his donation.
“I take no remuneration and do not do business with the state,” he said. “I have no privacy interests associated with these positions. I donate to Governor Hochul because I support her policies and admire her leadership, and I am honored to serve.”
Hochul also received $45,200 from John Ernst, the heir to the Bloomingdale estate, whom Cuomo appointed to the Adirondack Park Agency board in 2016, and Ernst’s wife. Less than three weeks after receiving those donations, she reappointed Mr. Ernst to the park’s board and made him chairman.
Mr. Ernst said he initially turned down Ms. Hochul’s offer of the presidency, which comes with a $30,000 annual salary, and categorically denied any connection between his donation and being appointed to this position.
“If I thought it was a conflict, I wouldn’t have done it – didn’t contribute anything,” he said. “I did it independently as a citizen because I believed in Kathy Hochul.”
A spokeswoman for the governor’s office, Julie Wood, said Ms Hochul had applied the ethics order “much more broadly and rigorously” than Mr. Cuomo, saying his administration had “violated the rules of the law” themselves.”
“Governor Hochul holds himself to a higher moral standard,” Ms. Wood said.
Ms. Hochul has also accepted donations and subsequently appointed donors to state boards and committees. She received $3,000 from Robert Simpson, executive director of a Syracuse nonprofit that promotes economic development, in two donations and placed him on the board of Empire State Development, the foundation New York Economic Development Authority, less than a month after the second.
A spokesman for Mr Simpson said that after taking over, he had adopted policies to limit conflicts of interest and pledged to no longer contribute or raise money to Ms. Hochul.
Hochul received more than $7,800 from Janice Shorenstein, the mother of Hochul’s former transition director, Marissa Shorenstein, and Janice Shorenstein raised funds for the governor in May. Marissa Shorenstein, who attended the event, was confirmed to the New York State Game Commission about two weeks later. Ms. Shorenstein and her mother did not respond to requests for comment left at their office.
And Hochul received an additional $5,000 in April from Sammy Chu, a Long Island businessman, whose company also paid more than $2,100 for a Hochul fundraiser in Plainview two days later. At the end of May, she tapped him for a position in the Metropolitan Transport Authority.
Mr. Chu said he learned of the regulations against governors taking money from appointees only when The Times informed him of them in August.
“Definitely no support at all,” Mr. Chu said. “Now that I’ve been appointed to the board, you know, I’m going to be very excited about that. But at the time, I was not a nominee or a board member.”
Taken together, records show, Ms. Hochul received at least 40 donations totaling more than $475,000 from either her nominees or Mr. Cuomo’s appointees and family members. their. These appointees sit on more than 20 boards, commissions, and public agencies across New York, including the State University of New York board, the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, and the New York Authority. York and the United Nations Development Corporation.
Ms. Hochul’s campaign emphasizes that she has been careful not to accept donations from anyone she appoints to a public position. In at least one case, The Times found, Hochul accepted contributions from someone Cuomo appointed, appointed that person to another committee and then declined to accept further contributions from him.
While none of the donations accepted by Ms Hochul’s campaign from her own appointees appear to violate any rules, they could nevertheless create a mismatch, experts say. legal experts said.
Some may feel pressured to give an elected official authority over their appointed positions. Kathleen Clark, a law professor at the University of Washington, said others who want to be appointed can donate in the hope of getting the job.
“It seems the way to get appointed is to give money or hold fundraisers,” Professor Clark said, adding: “Scandalism is what we allow, not what we prohibit.” .
For her part, Ms. Hochul has dismissed any suggestion that her fundraising activities might raise ethical concerns. When a reporter asked at a recent press conference if she was worried about the optics of taking campaign money from people doing business with the state, she was furious.
“I will say a word about this,” she said. “I follow all the rules, always have, always will.”
Nicholas Fandos and Asmaa Elkeurti contribution report.
