Corporate PACs Fail to Disclose Cash Behind Attacks in Primary Races

UPDATE: On Wednesday evening, hours after this article was first published, Common Sense New Yorkers and Voters of New York filed disclosure reports with the state Board of Elections detailing their spending and fundraising.

Jeffrey Leb, the treasurer of both PACs, who had not responded to emails, calls and text messages earlier in the day, told New York Focus that the failure to upload the disclosures by the legally mandated deadlines—which in some cases had passed months ago—was an “inadvertent omission.”

An initial review of the disclosures shows the two groups have raised over $1.3 million and spent over $690,000 since January. The three biggest targets of that spending were state Assembly candidates Sarahana Shrestha, Vanessa Agudelo, and Illapa Saritupac, all of whom have been endorsed by the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. The PACs sent four rounds of mailers attacking each of them, at a combined cost of over $180,000.

Much of the groups’ funds comes from corporations and individuals with ties to real estate and finance, including six figure contributions from Joseph Cayre, a real estate developer; Edward Conrad, a former managing director at Bain Capital; and the Extell Development Company, a real estate company.

With less than a week to go before New York’s primary election on June 28, two real estate-backed groups likely spending millions to boost moderate Democrats may be violating campaign finance law by failing to disclose where they’re getting their cash from and how they’re spending it.

The political committees Common Sense New Yorkers and Voters of New York are sponsoring mailers attacking at least seven progressive candidates for state legislature. Both groups are so-called “independent expenditure committees,” a type of political organization that can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, but cannot directly coordinate with the candidates they support.

New York law mandates that independent expenditure committees file reports detailing their spending and fundraising with the state Board of Elections 32 and 11 days before a primary, which neither group has done, according to the Board of Elections’ website as of Wednesday afternoon.

During the month before an election, the committees must also report all expenses over $5,000, and all contributions greater than $1,000, within 24 hours. At other times, that information must be reported on a weekly basis. Despite the recent rash of mailers, Common Sense New Yorkers has not reported any expenditures or contributions since February, and Voters of New York has not disclosed any of its donations or expenditures at all.

That leaves New Yorkers in the dark about enormous sums influencing their elections. The two groups planned to spend a combined $4 million this primary cycle, the New York Post reported in March. And in late February, Common Sense New Yorkers hosted a fundraiser at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan attended by then-Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin and New York City Mayor Eric Adams that raised over $1 million.

Common Sense New Yorkers’ most recent disclosure of donations, filed in January, reflected major support from the real estate and finance industries. Voters of New York’s only filing with the Board of Elections dates from January, when the group said that it had not received any cash or made any expenditures.

In recent weeks, at least seven candidates have been targeted by the mailers, all of whom are running for state Assembly seats in districts in New York City or the surrounding counties. Six of the seven are progressives challenging incumbent Assemblymembers. One is currently an incumbent: Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim. All of the candidates have been endorsed by the progressive Working Families Party, the Democratic Socialists of America, or both.