Bloomberg pours more cash into Cuomo super PAC, bringing his total contribution to $8.3M
NEW YORK — Mike Bloomberg's vast wealth is continuing to power Andrew Cuomo's front-running mayoral bid.
The billionaire former mayor contributed $3.3 million to a super PAC supporting Cuomo's attempted comeback in the nation's largest city — a donation made public on Wednesday that comes just days after Bloomberg gave $5 million to the group.
With the latest gift, Bloomberg is now single-handedly responsible for one-third of the PAC's total haul of $24 million since it launched in March, according to a POLITICO analysis. Other real estate and finance executives who make up New York's monied elite, including billionaire Donald Trump supporter Bill Ackman, have poured cash into the group.
A spokesperson for the super PAC, which is called Fix the City, did not comment on Bloomberg's latest contribution.
The money — and the flood of mailers and TV ads funded by it — indicate Cuomo supporters are nervous about the rise of his principal opponent, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The state lawmaker has been running a strong second to the ex-governor in most polls; a Marist College survey on Wednesday found Cuomo would defeat Mamdani after seven rounds of ranked-choice voting, 55 percent to 45 percent. But early voting is high in some neighborhoods that would appear to benefit Mamdani, and temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees next Tuesday, which could suppress turnout among older New Yorkers Cuomo is counting on.
Likely motivating Bloomberg, who had a rivalry with the former governor during their overlapping tenures, are Mamdani's far-left politics and criticism of Israel. He wants to raise taxes on the rich to pay for services like free bus fare and as recently as this week, refused to criticize the phrase 'globalize the Intifada,' calling it an expression of Palestinian rights.
The former mayor endorsed Cuomo last week, and called him the 'one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others.' Cuomo is 67 and worked in and around government and politics his entire career; Mamdani is 33 and counters criticisms of his thin résumé with reminders of the scandals that drove Cuomo from office.
The super PAC has been a significant source of support for the ex-governor, who is considered the favorite to win next Tuesday's Democratic primary despite tightening polls. The group has spent more than $14.8 million on TV ads — including a $5.4 million spot slamming Mamdani — according to media tracking firm AdImpact.
The super PAC, which is subject to higher ad rates than campaigns, has easily outspent Cuomo's rivals and is the best-funded PAC ever to play a role in municipal elections in New York City.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
12 minutes ago
- New York Post
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell stands behind doxing ICE agents even after officials said his actions put them in danger
The Democratic mayor of Tennessee's largest city, who has been accused of obstructing federal immigration efforts, defended his office's decision to publicly dox the names of immigration officers. Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell's defense came even after the names of federal immigration officials were removed from a public immigration report detailing a month's worth of immigration-related interactions between local police and federal immigration authorities. Initially, the public report detailed immigration officers' names, but following backlash over the move the names were taken down. 'I wouldn't say it was an endangerment process, I would say they may have some concerns – I'm far more concerned about the overall dynamic we have about unmarked, unidentifiable masked people whisking people into vehicles – i think that's a bigger concern,' O'Connell, who is currently under investigation by GOP House lawmakers for potentially interfering with federal immigration efforts, said during a press conference with reporters. O'Connell did add the move was not 'intentional,' but then quickly followed up that he wouldn't have described what happened as 'doxing' in the first place. 'It's not a process that I would characterize as doxing. It was an unintentional release of names that were already part of a public record,' he told reporters. 'They were already part of a public record by being in Department of Emergency Communication's calls, so I don't think it puts them at additional risk. But it's also not an intention of the executive order under which those names are released.' Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell was accused of obstructing federal immigration efforts. WireImage Fox News Digital reached out to O'Connell's office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. Larry Adams, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Field Office Director, told local Fox affiliate in Nashville WZTV that ICE agents disagree that making their names public is not a risk, noting their faces can easily be matched to photos on social media. 'It has gotten more and more difficult,' Adams said of his job under the new administration's aggressive deportation tactics, during a ride along with WZTV that occurred last week. 'What affects me the most, is we understand the job we are doing, we understand what we sign up for, it's mostly the attacks or threats against our families.' After Tennessee Republican Congressman Rep. Andy Ogles requested the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigate the Nashville mayor over allegedly obstructing federal officials, the agency followed through and opened an investigation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gathered at the DHS field office in Nashville on May 4, 2025. REUTERS Meanwhile, two congressional committees are also investigating him, including requesting documents related to O'Connell's Executive Order 30, which has required city departments to report federal immigration communications to the city of Nashville's Office of New Americans. In an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin remarked at the danger associated with doxing federal immigration officers, noting that the act effectively handed cartels intelligence 'on a silver platter.' 'These are the tip of the spear, these are the people on the front lines trying to make our communities safer,' McLaughlin said. 'So, when Democrats and the media show us who they are, we'll believe them, and it's the fact that they're fighting for people like MS-13 and child rapists to be on American streets.' According to local news outlet, the Tennessee Lookout, McLaughlin has also clapped back at O'Connell's claims that the release of immigration officials' names was a mistake. 'They claimed it was a mistake. There's zero chance it was a mistake, and there will be repercussions,' she said, according to the outlet.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
JD Vance bolts from DC to review the troops deployed by Trump in LA over ICE raid protests
Vice President JD Vance is traveling to Los Angeles Friday on a last-minute tour of facilities established for the Trump administration's mass deportation push and the crackdown on protests against those efforts using National Guard soldiers and active duty Marines. Vance's office said he will fly to the country's second-largest city on Friday to 'tour a multi-agency Federal Joint Operations Center, a Federal Mobile Command Center, meet with leadership and Marines and deliver brief remarks.' The announcement of his visit to California was made on Friday morning, and Vance's office did not release any information on the exact timing of his departure from Washington nor that of his planned arrival in California or the venue for his remarks. Although the White House traditionally makes the president and vice president's schedule public during travel within the United States, a source familiar with the administration's plans said the last-minute nature of the announcements and the lack of information about the trip was due to what they described as safety concerns. Vance's visit to the country's second-largest city comes less than a day after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the Trump administration by allowing President Donald Trump to maintain control over 4,000 National Guard soldiers called into federal service as a result of mass protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts. California Gov. Gavin Newsom had filed a lawsuit seeking to return the Guard to state control, arguing that Trump was bound to issue orders through him as the state's chief executive, and U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer had previously issued an order directing the Guard back under Newsom's control after he found that Trump's actions 'were illegal—both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.' After hearing the government's appeal, the judges said Trump could maintain control while the case moves forward, citing a federal law allowing the federalization of the Guard when 'the president is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.' They wrote that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth notifying the Adjutant General of the California National Guard, 'likely satisfied the statute's procedural requirement that federalization orders be issued 'through' the Governor.' The Trump administration is expected to continue aggressive deportation efforts in Los Angeles, as well as other large cities run by Democratic mayors as part of what the president has described as an effort to punish those cities for their failure to implement harsh anti-immigrant policies. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said he was ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to 'expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside." "These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens," the president added.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is released after spending over three months at a Louisiana detention center
Mahmoud Khalil – a Palestinian activist at the center of a long-running deportation fight – has been released from the Louisiana ICE detention center where he has spent more than three months after he was arrested outside his apartment on Columbia University's campus, his attorneys said. Wearing a keffiyeh – a scarf seen as a symbol of Palestinian identity and resistance – a grinning Khalil pumped his fists as he walked out of the detention center Friday evening with one of his attorneys. Since March, he had been detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the rural town of Jena, Louisiana. 'Although justice prevailed but it's long, very long overdue, and this shouldn't have taken three months,' Khalil told reporters outside the detention center, adding he couldn't wait to reunite with his wife and newborn son. Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil's release on bail Friday after finding he is not a flight risk or a danger to public safety. The judge said it's 'highly unusual' to be seeking his detention at this point. The judge also cited several 'extraordinary circumstances' in Khalil's case that led him to order his release, including 'that there is a due process violative effort to punish' the Columbia University graduate who played a central role in negotiations on behalf of pro-Palestinian student protesters last year. Khalil 'is not a flight risk, and the evidence that has been presented to me at least is that he is not a danger to the community, period, full stop,' Farbiarz said. Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is married to a US citizen and has not been charged with a crime, was one of the first arrestees in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown targeting student activism. As his case dragged on for over 100 days, several other student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration were released. Khalil said he is leaving behind immigrants still in detention who are 'in a place where they shouldn't have been.' 'The Trump administration are doing their best to dehumanize everyone here,' he said. 'Whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land, doesn't mean that you are less of a human.' Khalil's wife, Noor Abdalla, said in a statement that she can 'breathe a sigh of relief' knowing that Khalil will be reunited with his family after missing the birth of his first child during months of detention at a facility over 1,000 miles away. Judge Farbiarz previously ruled the government can't hold Khalil on the premise that his presence in the country is against the national interest, and on Friday found that Khalil doesn't need to be detained based on a second allegation against him that he failed to give required information in his application to become a legal permanent resident of the US. 'It's overwhelmingly unlikely, I found, that a lawful permanent resident would be detained on the remaining available charge' of failing to accurately fill out an immigration application, the judge said during Friday's hearing. At the hearing, Khalil's attorneys argued that the court should allow him to be released on bail or transferred to a detention center closer to his wife and newborn son. They said the chilling effect of his detention has made it an 'extraordinary case.' 'I'm aware, of my 20 years of representing immigrants, of no other case where the government announced the day that it detained someone that they were detaining them in order to send a message that their arrest would be the first of many, that they were going after student protesters,' Khalil's attorney Alina Das argued before the court. The federal government requested to temporarily halt Khalil's release, which the judge denied Friday. 'The court concluded there's no reason he should continue to be detained given the serious harms that are happening, the chill that is happening to his speech and other people's speech as a result of his detention,' one of his attorneys Baher Azmy told CNN Friday. In response to the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security said that 'The Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil.' As the case played out in immigration and federal courts, the administration has argued that Khalil should be deported because his presence in the United States threatens the administration's foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism. His lawyers contended that he was targeted for his pro-Palestinian views in violation of his constitutional rights. 'There is at least something to the underlying claim that there is an effort to use the immigration charge here to punish the petitioner. And of course, that would be unconstitutional,' Farbiarz said Friday. As part of his release conditions, Khalil's lawyers were required to surrender his passport to immigration authorities in Louisiana and he was prohibited from traveling internationally, limiting travel to a handful of states. The government was ordered to provide Khalil his green card and a copy of his passport, allowing him to board a plane home to New York Friday. Khalil will however not have to report to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York, Magistrate Judge Michael Hammer ordered. Though he's been released, Khalil's immigration proceedings will continue. Azmy, Khalil's attorney, said the legal team learned immigration Judge Jamee Comans in Louisiana separately reaffirmed her removability ruling an hour into Friday's hearing. Khalil's lawyers will appeal her decision through immigration court – a long process his lawyers say will be easier now that he is out of detention. 'I'm confident that on appeal, we will prevail,' Johnny Sinodis, one of Khalil's attorneys, told CNN's Laura Coates Friday, noting Khalil's insistence throughout court proceedings that he 'committed no misrepresentation, no fraud' during his green card application. Khalil's wife said the ruling doesn't begin to address the injustices their family has been through but said she's 'celebrating Mahmoud coming back to New York to be reunited with our little family, and the community that has supported us since the day he was unjustly taken for speaking out for Palestinian freedom.' The ruling comes exactly one week after Farbiarz ruled Khalil can remain in detention. After the judge said the government could no longer hold Khalil on the premise that his presence in the country is against the national interest, attorneys for the Department of Justice said the judge's decision did not prevent them from continuing to hold Khalil on a second claim – that he failed to give required information in his application to become a legal permanent resident of the US. The judge ruled last week that the administration's interpretation of his order is correct, keeping Khalil in detention. Khalil's attorneys at the time accused the administration of using 'cruel, transparent delay tactics' to keep Khalil in custody. Azmy on Friday said the charges still pending that Khalil made misrepresentations on his green card application are 'baseless' and will be litigated. When asked if Khalil will continue to protest when released, Azmy said: 'He's a peace activist, he's an international human rights activist, and he's Palestinian, and I don't expect he will ever stop advocating for justice for Palestinian people and an end to their continued slaughter and starvation.' This story has been updated with additional information. CNN's Gloria Pazmino contributed to this report.
