The Independent View: NY BOE Investigator Says Donations to Rogue Democrats May Have Been Illegal

The Chief Investigator for the New York Board of Elections (BOE), Counsel Risa Sugarman, is questioning the Legality of Hundreds of Thousands of Donations given to a Group of Former Renegade Democratic State Senators of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) who until recently were Allied with Republicans.

A Judge ruled last month that State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-34th District) and the State Independence Party created an Illegal Fundraising Committee that was used to Circumvent Contribution and Spending Limits to Aid Members of the Senate IDC. Klein Headed the Group until is Dissolved this year.

New Campaign Filings Reveal the Senate Independence Campaign Committee, the Joint Independence Party/IDC Fundraising Entity, pumped $700,000 into the Coffers of Seven ex-IDC Members.

The Committee Transferred:

- $200,000 to Klein’s Re-Election Committee
- $160,750 to Marisol Alcantra (D-31st District)
- $113,500 to Sen. Jose Peralta (D-13th District)
- $109,700 to Jesse Hamilton (D-20th District)
- $68,000 to Tony Avella (D-11th District)
- $62,000 to David Carlucci (D-38th District)
- $36,000 to David Valesky (D-53th District)

But Sugarman said a large Portion of those Donations were made before the Senate Independence Campaign Committee (SICC) Reconstituted Itself with New Leadership on April 24th to Comply with the Law, and therefore Violated Contribution Limits of $7,000 to a Candidate for a Primary and $11,000 for a General Election, or a Total of $18,000.

“They are way over the contribution limits,” said Sugarman, who Reviewed the Donations.

Lawrence Mandelker, the Lawyer for Klein and the Independence Party, insisted the SICC is Complying with the Law. He said Independence Party Chairman Frank McKay now Heads the SICC and the Committee’s Treasurer, John Kase, changed his Party Registration from Democrat to Independence Party.

Those Two Moves bring the SICC into Compliance with Last Month’s Ruling by Albany Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Connor, he said. “There’s nothing in the decision that stops the SICC from supporting former members of the IDC. This is 100 percent legal,” Mandelker said.

Judge O’Connor’s Ruling said it was Illegal “to allow the Independence Party to turn over a party committee to members of the IDC, enrolled Democrats….”