Payday: Bronx Dems Spent Nearly $300,000 on Consultancy Tied to Party Chair Jamaal Bailey

It’s not clear what the money was used for in a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans ten-to-one.

State Senator Jamaal Bailey is shown during a senate session at the NY State Capitol in 2019.

Image via Flickr, NY Senate Photo

The Bronx Democratic Party has paid close to $300,000 over the past few years to a political consultancy run by a close ally of state Senator and Bronx party chair Jamaal Bailey. | Image via Flickr, NY Senate Photo

Sam Mellins and Chris Bragg · October 24, 2024

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The Bronx Democratic Party has paid close to $300,000 over the past few years to a political consultancy run by a close ally of state senator and Bronx party chair Jamaal Bailey, new financial disclosures show.

The significant expenses despite the near-total lack of competitive general elections in the Bronx raise questions about whether the party is using its funds to benefit a friend of its chair, as well as others close to party leadership — such as a former Bailey staffer who used to live at Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s house in the Bronx.

“I’m not sure why you need that much money to promote the Bronx Democratic Party in the Bronx, which is overwhelmingly Democratic,” said Sarah Steiner, a New York City attorney who specializes in election law.

Much of the Bronx party’s recent fundraising has come from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, a political group that supports state Assembly candidates. Heastie serves as the committee’s honorary chair. The official chair, Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, also represents the Bronx.

New York State Assembly speaker Carl Heastie stands in front of a tile wall with TV microphones.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie discusses last year's state budget in Albany on May 2, 2023. | Hans Pennink / ZUMA Press Wire

Bailey said that most of the payments to London House, the consulting firm, were for “administrative and operational services,” and some were for voter outreach. He did not provide further details

London House’s founder and Bailey’s “lifelong friend,” Jason Laidley, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The party had never disclosed the spending. The disclosures were triggered by New York Focus’s reporting last week, which found that the Bronx party hadn’t accounted for hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee.

Between 1999 and early 2020, the Assembly Democratic arm had never donated to the Bronx Democrats, but has directed nearly $700,000 to the group since then. The committee has not given substantial sums to any other county-based Democratic party in the last five years.

Laidley worked on all of Bailey’s previous Senate campaigns and in his office from 2017 to 2022. The Bronx party’s executive director, Ariana Collado, is also listed as a London House staffer on the company’s website.

Laidley’s business has been lucrative: The Bronx Democratic Party and other political campaigns have paid London House nearly $900,000 since 2021. The firm also raked in more than $1 million in fees as a registered lobbyist for clients with business in New York.

Bailey’s campaign alone paid over $88,000 to London House since 2022, beginning just days after Laidley left Bailey’s staff. The campaign also directly paid Laidley over $163,000 from 2016 to 2022, with much of that sum coming while he was employed by Bailey.

Though the Bronx Democratic party has been London House’s biggest campaign client by far, the campaigns of Governor Kathy Hochul and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado have also paid the firm $30,000 for services.

Governor Kathy Hochul speaks at a podium at the Long Island Rail Road West Side Yard in 2023.

Governor Kathy Hochul's and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado's campaigns have paid London House $30,000 for services. | Image via Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Flickr.

The payments to London House began while Laidley was still employed in Bailey’s office.

Nearly $200,000 came from the Bronx Democrats’s “housekeeping” account, a type of campaign fund that is supposed to spend on overhead costs, like office rent and salaries, and is barred from spending to boost specific candidates. Government reform groups have long complained that the law governing housekeeping accounts is riddeled with loopholes and frequently abused.

The payments to London House from the housekeeping account are labeled “campaign consultant” in the memo line.

Steiner, the election lawyer, said that the recent financial disclosures don’t make it clear whether the laws governing housekeeping accounts were violated.

“In theory, it could have been promoting the Bronx Democratic Party” — a permitted activity, if no specific candidates were boosted, she said.

London House’s largest payments have often come during election seasons. For instance, the biggest single amount the Bronx housekeeping account paid to the firm — $21,600 on July 3, 2023 — came about a week after that year’s primary elections for the New York City Council.

That same day, the campaign of Democrat Kevin Riley, who had successfully run in that year’s City Council primary with the support of the Bronx Democratic Party, paid London House $25,000.

It was the only payment by a City Council campaign to London House that year. It was for campaign consulting, canvassing, and “operation,” according to the financial disclosures.

Riley is a former longtime staffer for Heastie, who chaired the Bronx Democratic Party before becoming speaker in 2015.

While receiving the Bronx housekeeping payments, London House has simultaneously worked for numerous other Bronx candidates supported by the party, including for Assembly, Senate, district attorney, and judgeships.

John Kaehny, executive director of the good government nonprofit Reinvent Albany, noted that housekeeping accounts are permitted to engage in campaign-like activities such as polling and research.

“They let them do basically everything. It’s a very small fig leaf,” he said.

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Sam Mellins and Chris Bragg

London House isn’t the only well-connected recipient of the Bronx party’s funds.

Dominique Maddox received $24,000 from the Bronx party’s housekeeping account in four equal installments in 2023 and 2024 for “professional services,” according to the payment memo. She was on Bailey’s Senate staff as a “special assistant” from 2017 to 2020, separately was paid over $8,000 by his campaign, and called Laidley her “cousin/ brother” in a 2019 instagram post.

Maddox’s deep ties to Bronx party honchos don’t stop there. She listed Heastie’s personal residence in the northeast Bronx as her home address this year, and has listed the address on her voter registration in the past. Heastie spokesperson Michael Whyland said that Maddox “has been like a daughter to him [Heastie] since she was 7 years old,” and that she lived at Heastie’s residence from “after college” until last year.

In a brief phone interview, Maddox said that the payments from the Bronx Democrats were for “media stuff.” She did not provide further details.

Maddox isn’t the only Bailey associate who listed Heastie’s address on their voter registration. Trey Avant, who was briefly on Bailey’s senate staff in 2018, also registered from there, public records show. Jason Laracuente, a bookkeeper for Heastie’s campaign accounts, also used Heastie’s address on his voter registration and listed it as his own address in a 2006 donation to Heastie.

Whyland said that Avant is an in-law of Heastie’s, and Laracuente is a friend.