Businesses with big NY interests throw cash at Kathy Hochul in final days of tight NY gov race
Individuals and businesses that rely on state contracts and tax breaks have been throwing tens of thousands of dollars at Gov. Kathy Hochul — despite months of accusations about alleged pay-to-play schemes with campaign donors — as her tight race against Republican Lee Zeldin enters its final days.
“Kathy Hochul put a giant for sale sign on New York State’s Capitol, so of course special interests are rushing in to protect the status quo,” GOP state Chair Nick Langworthy said Wednesday.
Records show James Dolan and his family, which owns Madison Square Garden and the Knicks and Rangers teams that play there, receives a lucrative state tax break, The City reported, and have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a super PAC pushing for Hochul.
Others cutting five-figure checks to Hochul’s campaign account in recent days include A Better Balance nonprofit leader Beth Nash, who gave $20,000, and the sustainable energy company Avangrid, which gave $16,000.
Architect Aleksandra Chancy, whose consulting business has contracted with the state on big projects like the Second Avenue Subway, gave $17,100, records show, while Solomon Werdiger, board chair at Agudath Israel, which supports Orthodox causes at the state level, gave $25,000 to Hochul.
Cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel chipped in $1,983 more after giving her tens of thousands of dollars earlier this year amid an unsuccessful push by Hochul’s administration to make manufacturers more responsible for the waste associated with packaging materials.
Jason Robins – CEO of the sports betting company Draft Kings – threw down $25,000 this week on the Hochul campaign alongside gifts of the same amount from his wife Shannon Robin and Stanton Dodge, chief legal officer at the company.
“Bad bet,” a Zeldin staffer quipped via Twitter Wednesday as the Long Island congressman pushes for an historic upset over the incumbent Democrat despite her longtime fundraising edge in a state that has not elected a Republican governor in two decades.
The influx of tens of thousands of dollars in new donations follows months in which Hochul’s record campaign war chest has attracted criticism over alleged pay-to-play arrangements with donors like a family tied to a $637 million, no-bid, contract for COVID-19 rapid tests.
“This all comes to an end when Lee Zeldin is governor and it’s the taxpayers of New York whose interests will be the only ones represented,” Langworthy said.
Both candidates reported having roughly $6 million on hand in campaign filings posted Friday.
A campaign spokesman for Hochul, who has denied pay-to-play wrongdoing, declined to comment about her fundraising in the final stretch of the campaign following polling and fundraising filings showing the candidates neck-and-neck on both fronts.
Records show Zeldin, too, has raised at least tens of thousands of dollars in recent days, though the bulk of them appear to have been in the low four-figures.
While Zeldin’s campaign has raised roughly half of the record $45 million touted by Hochul late last month, outside groups have aimed to even the score through six- and seven-figure checks from conservative mega-donors like Estée Lauder heir Ronald Lauder, who has donated nearly $10 million to pro-Zeldin groups.
“Our books are wide open for business and we will be fundraising and spending money to keep the fight going until 9pm On Election Day,” said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), spokesman for the Pro-Zeldin group Save Our State.
