He’ll probably get away with it yet again, but Mayor de Blasio couldn’t stop himself from playing funny-money games in what’s likely his last campaign ever.
Politico reports that he abused his federal and state Fairness PACs to keep his feckless presidential run afloat after its coffers ran dry — to the tune of nearly $200,000 paid to staffers, advisers and lawyers working for the campaign.
Both PACs are supposed to be dedicated to supporting other candidates — not serve as slush funds for their “owner.”
Most of the PACs’ recent money came from the same small group of wealthy donors (many of which did business with the city) who gave to his campaign. Indeed, de Blasio’s White House run relied far more heavily on fat-cat contributions than any other candidate’s (except the self-funding ones).
All this is par for the de Blasio course, going back to the hijinks that had his fundraising under serious federal and state criminal investigation for years.
He plainly sold access to City Hall to fund his Campaign for One New York slush fund and got away with it. And he’s kept on doing much the same, albeit by testing the boundaries of different laws these days.
Maybe the Federal Election Commission will get around to doing an investigation. But the FEC is pretty dysfunctional, so any probe is unlikely this year.
His campaign flack Jon Paul Lupo told Politico that de Blasio is being treated unfairly, “held to a standard required by no law and that somehow is applied to no other elected official.” Sure.
At least term limits mean he can’t run for mayor again. On the other hand, First Lady Chirlane McCray will soon start fundraising for her likely Brooklyn borough president bid: Don’t be surprised if that effort develops a familiar reek.
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