Latest news with #CommonCauseNewYork
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Andrew Cuomo is whispering to his super PAC
NEW YORK — New York City mayoral campaigns aren't allowed to strategize with super PACs that support their candidates, but Andrew Cuomo has found a way around that. With significantly less cash on hand than he'd hoped due to a paperwork error, the Democratic frontrunner is relying on a legal practice known as redboxing to communicate his preferred messaging to anyone squinting at the bottom of his website. And if the reader happens to work for a super PAC backing Cuomo, that messaging could find its way into the TV ads the group is airing on his behalf. He would love an ad highlighting his messaging against antisemitism, and one noting he's a progressive who stood up to President Donald Trump on abortion. Ads should target voters between 40 and 55 years old. And Cuomo doesn't just want videos, but also door-to-door canvassing. The campaign also provides 14 video clips of Cuomo talking — some as short as five seconds long — that could be used in ads. It's all featured surreptitiously in a page on Cuomo's campaign website, accessed by scrolling past a donation link button, an issue page and some of his biography and finding the words 'Message for Voters' in small font, next to the campaign's privacy policy. That's because the page is actually meant to be found, read and used by any operatives working for independent expenditure committees — the New York City version of super PACs — which can raise unlimited funds ungoverned by the strict donations limits placed on campaigns, according to political operatives and rival camps. Cuomo's team isn't denying it. The name of the practice is a nod to a bright red line campaigns often draw around the guidance on the website, though Cuomo's team opted not to follow that custom. And it's an increasingly common campaign tactic to circumvent campaign finance laws. 'The whole point of an independent expenditure is it is supposed to be independent,' said Susan Lerner, the executive director of election reform group Common Cause New York, in response to Cuomo's website. 'It's a message to the voters, if you are always on the line. And that tells you something about the people who are willing, always, to go to the end of the envelope and push.' The Federal Elections Commission has effectively endorsed the practice, releasing a statement in 2022 concluding that laws barring coordination aren't triggered by web pages available to the general public. Eric Adams' campaign provided similar guidance during his successful 2021 mayoral campaign — guidance super PACs used to strategize spending millions of dollars on his behalf, said an operative who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign strategy. Cuomo is not the only mayoral candidate this year hoping to guide a super PAC — in his case, a group called Fix the City has raised more than $6.2 million in less than two months, led by donors in the real estate and finance industries. It's run by Steve Cohen, a former top aide to Cuomo, and has already reported spending $1.9 million on ads highlighting his record. Scott Stringer, the former city comptroller, has a 'message to New York City voters' on his website and a graphic-free video that could easily be remixed. Campaign consultant Bill Hyers launched an independent expenditure committee to support him this month, POLITICO first reported, but it hasn't raised or spent any money yet. Another super PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has reported raising $64,000 to support Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign. Mamdani doesn't have similar guidance on his website. The New York City Campaign Finance Board denied Cuomo as much as $2.5 million in public matching funds because the campaign failed to submit complete paperwork of donor information. He won't be eligible to get the payout until May 12. 'When you don't have matching funds, you need somebody to pay for all of the ads,' said Andrew Epstein, a spokesperson for Mamdani. The campaign updated its messaging guidance right after Mamdani launched his first TV ad last week, adding more direct instruction to what had been a bare-bones message. 'It's a broad message to voters,' Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said of the page. Fix the City spokesperson Liz Benjamin declined to comment on whether the super PAC has reviewed the page and was planning to use it, instead sharing a statement that the PAC is 'led by a diverse and experienced board and an independent staff.' Other opponents were hesitant to criticize Cuomo for the tactic, but took issue with the messaging. 'A decade in office and zero mention of bringing down housing costs — because Cuomo's got no record to stand on,' said Olivia Lapeyrolerie, spokesperson for state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. A spokesperson for City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she didn't appreciate that the page claimed Cuomo is 'the only major candidate who did not support the defund the police movement.' 'Even ChatGPT could have told the Cuomo campaign that Adrienne Adams opposed defunding the police,' Lupe Todd-Medina said in a statement, in a jab at Cuomo's team using the artificial intelligence program to research a portion of a policy paper. 'It's a shame they have to make things up rather than just make their case to New Yorkers.' But one political operative who works for super PACs said every candidate 'who has half a brain' knows that the tactic of redboxing helps. 'The best way to get messaging out to an IE is to make a website, put pictures, put videos, and we will find it,' said the operative, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
Politico
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Andrew Cuomo is whispering to his super PAC
NEW YORK — New York City mayoral campaigns aren't allowed to strategize with super PACs that support their candidates, but Andrew Cuomo has found a way around that. With significantly less cash on hand than he'd hoped due to a paperwork error, the Democratic frontrunner is relying on a legal practice known as redboxing to communicate his preferred messaging to anyone squinting at the bottom of his website. And if the reader happens to work for a super PAC backing Cuomo, that messaging could find its way into the TV ads the group is airing on his behalf. He would love an ad highlighting his messaging against antisemitism, and one noting he's a progressive who stood up to President Donald Trump on abortion. Ads should target voters between 40 and 55 years old. And Cuomo doesn't just want videos, but also door-to-door canvassing. The campaign also provides 14 video clips of Cuomo talking — some as short as five seconds long — that could be used in ads. It's all featured surreptitiously in a page on Cuomo's campaign website, accessed by scrolling past a donation link button, an issue page and some of his biography and finding the words 'Message for Voters' in small font, next to the campaign's privacy policy. That's because the page is actually meant to be found, read and used by any operatives working for independent expenditure committees — the New York City version of super PACs — which can raise unlimited funds ungoverned by the strict donations limits placed on campaigns, according to political operatives and rival camps. Cuomo's team isn't denying it. The name of the practice is a nod to a bright red line campaigns often draw around the guidance on the website, though Cuomo's team opted not to follow that custom. And it's an increasingly common campaign tactic to circumvent campaign finance laws. 'The whole point of an independent expenditure is it is supposed to be independent,' said Susan Lerner, the executive director of election reform group Common Cause New York, in response to Cuomo's website. 'It's a message to the voters, if you are always on the line. And that tells you something about the people who are willing, always, to go to the end of the envelope and push.' The Federal Elections Commission has effectively endorsed the practice, releasing a statement in 2022 concluding that laws barring coordination aren't triggered by web pages available to the general public. Eric Adams' campaign provided similar guidance during his successful 2021 mayoral campaign — guidance super PACs used to strategize spending millions of dollars on his behalf, said an operative who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign strategy. Cuomo is not the only mayoral candidate this year hoping to guide a super PAC — in his case, a group called Fix the City has raised more than $6.2 million in less than two months, led by donors in the real estate and finance industries. It's run by Steve Cohen, a former top aide to Cuomo, and has already reported spending $1.9 million on ads highlighting his record. Scott Stringer, the former city comptroller, has a ' message to New York City voters ' on his website and a graphic-free video that could easily be remixed. Campaign consultant Bill Hyers launched an independent expenditure committee to support him this month, POLITICO first reported , but it hasn't raised or spent any money yet. Another super PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has reported raising $64,000 to support Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign. Mamdani doesn't have similar guidance on his website. The New York City Campaign Finance Board denied Cuomo as much as $2.5 million in public matching funds because the campaign failed to submit complete paperwork of donor information. He won't be eligible to get the payout until May 12. 'When you don't have matching funds, you need somebody to pay for all of the ads,' said Andrew Epstein, a spokesperson for Mamdani. The campaign updated its messaging guidance right after Mamdani launched his first TV ad last week, adding more direct instruction to what had been a bare-bones message. 'It's a broad message to voters,' Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said of the page. Fix the City spokesperson Liz Benjamin declined to comment on whether the super PAC has reviewed the page and was planning to use it, instead sharing a statement that the PAC is 'led by a diverse and experienced board and an independent staff.' Other opponents were hesitant to criticize Cuomo for the tactic, but took issue with the messaging. 'A decade in office and zero mention of bringing down housing costs — because Cuomo's got no record to stand on,' said Olivia Lapeyrolerie, spokesperson for state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. A spokesperson for City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said she didn't appreciate that the page claimed Cuomo is 'the only major candidate who did not support the defund the police movement.' 'Even ChatGPT could have told the Cuomo campaign that Adrienne Adams opposed defunding the police,' Lupe Todd-Medina said in a statement, in a jab at Cuomo's team using the artificial intelligence program to research a portion of a policy paper. 'It's a shame they have to make things up rather than just make their case to New Yorkers.' But one political operative who works for super PACs said every candidate 'who has half a brain' knows that the tactic of redboxing helps. 'The best way to get messaging out to an IE is to make a website, put pictures, put videos, and we will find it,' said the operative, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cuomo won't release consulting clients from his time out of public eye
NEW YORK — New York City mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo is pledging to recuse himself, if elected, from potential conflicts of interest stemming from his recent legal consulting business. Yet he refuses to disclose his clients — making his guarantee impossible to verify. As the former governor seeks to take over a City Hall beset by corruption scandals, he is effectively setting up an honor system on his promise to avoid conflicts of interest that could arise if his clients at Innovation Strategies have business before the administration. 'This is simple: Candidate Cuomo should disclose who his clients were and say how he will recuse himself should he win,' Susan Lerner, head of Common Cause New York, said. As mayor, Cuomo would run a sprawling city government that doles out billions of dollars' worth of contracts and regulates business and real estate activity — potentially posing opportunities for him to interact with prior patrons who, collectively, paid him a handsome sum. In 2024, Cuomo reported making more than $500,000 from the firm, the highest income bracket tracked by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board. The board does not require candidates to disclose individual clients. But knowing who paid him, Lerner said, would provide insight into whether any former business associates were benefiting from government action and would show the electorate he has nothing to hide. Former Comptroller Scott Stringer, for instance, released a list of lobbying and consulting clients to POLITICO after jumping into the Democratic primary. Cuomo's camp declined to do the same. 'Since he left office, among other activities, Governor Cuomo has been engaged in private practice, providing legal services, representing individuals and corporations in a variety of matters, and does not comment on those private client matters,' spokesperson Richard Azzopardi said in a statement. 'He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency.' If Cuomo were to become mayor, Azzopardi said he would work with the conflicts board on any issues that might arise. Specifically, Cuomo's team said he would give a list of his former clients to the board, which would determine if there was a conflict for any particular government action. If so, Cuomo would recuse himself from that decision and disclose his recusal. While an attorney from the board did not address Cuomo's specific situation, she said monitoring a list of former clients who worked with a city official would not be within its purview or even possible with its current resources. The board is primarily concerned with an official's outside relationships while in office. The board does, however, dole out advice to any official who asks for guidance. The question of how to handle former legal clients is reminiscent of Mayor Eric Adams' first chief of staff, a Brooklyn attorney who divested from his former law firm upon shifting to government work. At the time, Frank Carone's pledge to recuse himself from matters that involved former clients drew criticism from ethics experts, who called for a more standardized process laid out in writing. A POLITICO review found several of his former patrons had business before city government while Carone held a position of power. While Cuomo's pledge is equally impossible to verify, his pledge to provide the COIB with a client list goes beyond what Carone instituted. Cuomo's refusal to come clean about his clients contains a hint of irony: More than a decade ago as governor, he pushed state officials to disclose their private clients in the name of government accountability. In 2011, he signed an ethics package that pushed for Albany lawmakers to publicly list clients with business before the state. Four years later, he pushed to expand those disclosure rules and limit exemptions based on attorney-client privilege. "This new level of disclosure and transparency will go a long way towards restoring the public trust,' Cuomo said after the passage of the 2015 ethics laws. 'The more trust, the more credibility.' The circumstances in City Hall are slightly different: While state legislators are allowed to earn outside income while holding office, mayors are not — though they are subject to term limits that often land them back in the private sector. Regardless, an elected official who was in office at the time of the Albany ethics reforms said the spirit is the same. 'It appears in his history he was supportive of this for others. I think he should support it for himself,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger. Reinvent Albany, a government reform organization, said disclosing other information such as the types of clients Cuomo represented and any municipal business they had would help shed light on the issue, even if he refuses to name the companies or individuals themselves. Bloomberg News, for example, reported Cuomo did legal work for a cryptocurrency exchange that was facing a federal probe — a rare peek into his post-government activities. "City Hall has been wracked by enormous pay-to-play scandals,' said John Kaehny, Reinvent Albany's executive director. 'Seems reasonable to ask the front-runner to reveal what industries he's been consulting for and how much they've been paying him."
Politico
28-04-2025
- Business
- Politico
Cuomo won't release consulting clients from his time out of public eye
NEW YORK — New York City mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo is pledging to recuse himself, if elected, from potential conflicts of interest stemming from his recent legal consulting business. Yet he refuses to disclose his clients — making his guarantee impossible to verify. As the former governor seeks to take over a City Hall beset by corruption scandals, he is effectively setting up an honor system on his promise to avoid conflicts of interest that could arise if his clients at Innovation Strategies have business before the administration. 'This is simple: Candidate Cuomo should disclose who his clients were and say how he will recuse himself should he win,' Susan Lerner, head of Common Cause New York, said. As mayor, Cuomo would run a sprawling city government that doles out billions of dollars' worth of contracts and regulates business and real estate activity — potentially posing opportunities for him to interact with prior patrons who, collectively, paid him a handsome sum. In 2024, Cuomo reported making more than $500,000 from the firm, the highest income bracket tracked by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board. The board does not require candidates to disclose individual clients. But knowing who paid him, Lerner said, would provide insight into whether any former business associates were benefiting from government action and would show the electorate he has nothing to hide. Former Comptroller Scott Stringer, for instance, released a list of lobbying and consulting clients to POLITICO after jumping into the Democratic primary. Cuomo's camp declined to do the same. 'Since he left office, among other activities, Governor Cuomo has been engaged in private practice, providing legal services, representing individuals and corporations in a variety of matters, and does not comment on those private client matters,' spokesperson Richard Azzopardi said in a statement. 'He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency.' If Cuomo were to become mayor, Azzopardi said he would work with the conflicts board on any issues that might arise. Specifically, Cuomo's team said he would give a list of his former clients to the board, which would determine if there was a conflict for any particular government action. If so, Cuomo would recuse himself from that decision and disclose his recusal. While an attorney from the board did not address Cuomo's specific situation, she said monitoring a list of former clients who worked with a city official would not be within its purview or even possible with its current resources. The board is primarily concerned with an official's outside relationships while in office. The board does, however, dole out advice to any official who asks for guidance. The question of how to handle former legal clients is reminiscent of Mayor Eric Adams' first chief of staff, a Brooklyn attorney who divested from his former law firm upon shifting to government work. At the time, Frank Carone's pledge to recuse himself from matters that involved former clients drew criticism from ethics experts, who called for a more standardized process laid out in writing. A POLITICO review found several of his former patrons had business before city government while Carone held a position of power. While Cuomo's pledge is equally impossible to verify, his pledge to provide the COIB with a client list goes beyond what Carone instituted. Cuomo's refusal to come clean about his clients contains a hint of irony: More than a decade ago as governor, he pushed state officials to disclose their private clients in the name of government accountability. In 2011, he signed an ethics package that pushed for Albany lawmakers to publicly list clients with business before the state. Four years later, he pushed to expand those disclosure rules and limit exemptions based on attorney-client privilege. 'This new level of disclosure and transparency will go a long way towards restoring the public trust,' Cuomo said after the passage of the 2015 ethics laws. 'The more trust, the more credibility.' The circumstances in City Hall are slightly different: While state legislators are allowed to earn outside income while holding office, mayors are not — though they are subject to term limits that often land them back in the private sector. Regardless, an elected official who was in office at the time of the Albany ethics reforms said the spirit is the same. 'It appears in his history he was supportive of this for others. I think he should support it for himself,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger. Reinvent Albany, a government reform organization, said disclosing other information such as the types of clients Cuomo represented and any municipal business they had would help shed light on the issue, even if he refuses to name the companies or individuals themselves. Bloomberg News, for example, reported Cuomo did legal work for a cryptocurrency exchange that was facing a federal probe — a rare peek into his post-government activities. 'City Hall has been wracked by enormous pay-to-play scandals,' said John Kaehny, Reinvent Albany's executive director. 'Seems reasonable to ask the front-runner to reveal what industries he's been consulting for and how much they've been paying him.'
