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Where’s The Money? More Than $400,000 Missing from Bronx Democratic Party Disclosures

The chair of Assembly Democrats’ campaign committee said he wasn’t aware his organization had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Bronx.

Sam Mellins   ·   October 15, 2024
An image shows a closeup of a magnifying glass and $20 bills behind the Bronx skyline.
The Bronx Democratic Party has failed to disclose more than $400,000 in campaign contributions over the past four years. | Images Money via Flickr + Brad Racino
Read the rest of our series on the hidden flows of money, power and favors behind the Bronx political machine:
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The Bronx Democratic Party, which helps elect Democratic candidates across the northernmost borough of New York City, has failed to disclose more than $400,000 in campaign contributions over the past four years — an apparent violation of campaign finance law.

A New York Focus review found that the state Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, chaired by Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, transferred the funds in over a dozen installments, yet those contributions never appeared on the Bronx party’s paperwork.

It’s unclear what the Bronx Democrats used the money for. The heavily Democratic borough rarely sees competitive general elections, and the county party has not reported large expenses in recent years. Neither the Bronx party nor the Assembly campaign committee, nor Bronx party chair Jamaal Bailey, responded to a request for comment.

New York State’s Board of Elections, which regulates campaign finance in the state, doesn’t appear to have taken any action in response to the omissions. The board did not respond to a request for comment.

New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie speaking at a press conference in 2021

The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee transferred the funds in 23 installments, ranging in size from $15,000 to over $50,000, beginning in April 2020 and continuing through June 2024.

The committee’s choice to invest heavily in the Bronx is odd, given the lack of competitive elections in the borough: Every assemblymember currently representing the borough is a Democrat, and the Bronx is generally one of the most heavily Democratic counties in the country.

As money has flowed to the Bronx, Democratic assemblymembers have lost ground elsewhere in the state. In November 2022, the last statewide election cycle, Republicans unseated several longtime Democratic incumbents and gained five Assembly seats.

In the months leading up to that election, the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee sent nearly $200,000 to the Bronx Democrats while also spending several million dollars boosting Democratic assemblymembers in competitive elections. But some threatened Democrats received less support from the committee than they hoped for.

Former Assemblymember Steven Englebright, a Democrat of Suffolk County, was defeated by Republican Edward Flood by less than 1,000 votes. Englebright told New York Focus that he requested direct financial support from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee but didn’t get it, though the committee did spend over $40,000 supporting his campaign by paying for polling and voter contact services.

“I remember putting a phone call in, and there were some conversations, but the conversations didn’t materialize” into action, he said. “I really don’t have any clear understanding of why the communication seemed to be so difficult.”

He doesn’t blame the committee for losing his seat, though, instead attributing his loss to a “perfect storm” — an anemic Long Island campaign from Governor Kathy Hochul and a Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lee Zeldin, who hailed from Suffolk County.

“The systems that we have in place in order to monitor money in politics and track campaign donations just seem to not be working ...”

—Robert Galbraith, senior research analyst, Public Accountability Initiative

Despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars it has apparently received, financial disclosures show the Bronx party has spent less than $75,000 since 2020, mostly on campaign consultants. It’s possible that their expense records are incomplete, too, noted Robert Galbraith, senior research analyst at the nonprofit Public Accountability Initiative, when asked to review the filings.

“The worst-case scenario you can imagine is that they took the money in and didn’t report bringing it in, and then spent it on something without reporting what that was,” he said.

It’s not surprising that regulators haven’t taken action, Galbraith said, since the Board of Elections does not have a strong record of proactively policing campaign finance violations.

“The systems that we have in place in order to monitor money in politics and track campaign donations just seem to not be working in terms of being able to get an accurate accounting of where money is going and coming from,” Galbraith said.

One person who may have helped steer money towards the Bronx party: Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, one of the most powerful figures in state politics and the honorary chair of the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee. Heastie represents the Bronx, as does Assemblymember Dinowitz, who has chaired the committee since at least 2021.

Heastie’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Dinowitz said he wasn’t familiar with the contributions to the Bronx party, but that there were “too many reports to go through” for him to determine why they were made.

“I’m not the person who signs checks. I’m not the treasurer, or anything like that,” he said.

Dinowitz suggested that New York Focus contact the committee’s Albany office for clarification.

The Albany office did not respond to New York Focus’s requests for comment.

Correction: A previous version of this story reported that the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee had not financially supported former Assemblymember Steven Englebright. The committee spent over $40,000 supporting his candidacy.

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Editor-in-Chief
Sam Mellins is senior reporter at New York Focus, which he has been a part of since launch day. His reporting has also appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Intercept, THE CITY, and The Nation. 
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