Why’s a Finance Titan Dropping $1 Million on Bronx Elections?

The new Jenkins-backed PAC — Ending Homelessness and Building a Better NYC — is run by Tomas Ramos and Jason Autar, executives of a Bronx social services nonprofit that has received significant funding from Jenkins. Md Tawfique Reja, a political neophyte who served as treasurer for a Jenkins-funded PAC in 2022, is the PAC’s treasurer.

The $950,000 that Jenkins has put into the PAC so far is greater than the total sum of all PAC spending on Bronx City Council candidates in the 2023 or 2021 election cycles.

Ending Homelessness will support Wilfredo Lopez, a nonprofit lawyer running for City Council in a district that straddles Manhattan and the Bronx. Lopez also received support from a Jenkins-funded PAC when he ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2022.

Ramos told New York Focus that the PAC plans to endorse more candidates and release a policy platform. He didn’t detail the policy platform, other than to say it’ll be about “safety” and “issues with methadone clinics.”

Several other things about Ending Homelessness and its operators raised our eyebrows:

1. The PAC’s treasurer is a former waiter and personal trainer with almost no political experience.

Though he’s managing the PAC’s funds and is responsible for ensuring its compliance with the complex requirements of New York’s election laws, Md. Tawfique Reja isn’t exactly a political veteran. He works for Wakefern, a supermarket company, according to his LinkedIn profile. He mentioned previously working as a personal trainer and waiter during a 2021 podcast appearance, in which he also discussed founding a halal groceries delivery company that today appears to be defunct. Reja declared personal bankruptcy in 2020.

He does have some political experience: In 2022, he served as the treasurer of another Jenkins-funded PAC called Moving NY Forward, which supported Democratic state Assembly candidates — again, mostly in the Bronx. Reja was paid more than $68,000 over six months for the job.

Why he was tapped for the job isn’t clear, but a former employee of the PAC told New York Focus that Reja is a personal friend of Jason Autar, one of the people now running the Ending Homelessness PAC.

New York Focus reached Reja by phone in October and asked him to discuss his political work. He said it wasn’t a good time. Asked when would be a good time, Reja responded, “Never,” and hung up.

He didn’t respond to further contact attempts.

2. Tomas Ramos’s role may not have been disclosed.

Reja was the only individual listed as having run Moving NY Forward in state filings from 2022. But two individuals told New York Focus that Ramos, from the social services nonprofit, was directly involved with the PAC’s operations as well.

State law requires individuals who exert “operational control” over a PAC to disclose their identities to the Board of Elections, so there’s transparency around who’s directing the flow of cash. Ramos told New York Focus he was not involved with the PAC’s operations.

But Wilfredo Lopez, who ran for state Assembly in 2022 with support from Moving NY Forward, said Ramos told him that he had been involved with running the PAC when they met following the 2022 election, and also expressed interest in supporting another Lopez run for office.

“I was like, ‘That’s freaking awesome, I appreciate the help,’” Lopez told New York Focus.

An individual who was paid by the PAC in 2022 and requested anonymity to prevent professional reprisal also said that “it really was Tomas and Jason that were making the decisions.”

3. This wasn’t the only way Moving NY Forward skirted campaign finance law.

In another apparent legal misstep, Moving NY Forward failed to list how much it paid each of its employees, as required by law. Instead, its public filings contain nine payments totaling nearly $400,000 with the memo line “campaign worker salaries.”

That money was paid to “Keypad Studios LLC,” a company with no public presence that was created in April 2022, just two months before the checks started going out.

The payments were sent to a house in Flushing — Reja’s personal residence, as listed in his bankruptcy filing.