Plus: Bedford Hills prison returned an incarcerated journalist's typewriter after we reported that it had been confiscated.
Plus: Bedford Hills prison returned an incarcerated journalist's typewriter after we reported that it had been confiscated. ·  View in browser
NEWSLETTER
 
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
The chair of Assembly Democrats’ campaign committee said he wasn’t aware his organization had sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Bronx.
By Sam Mellins

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.

 
NYC Mayor Eric Adams delivers remarks at a flag-raising ceremony for the Republic of Korea in Bowling Green Park, NYC. Thursday, October 3, 2024. Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
The indictment has exposed cracks in New York’s widely admired way of helping fund campaigns.
By Julia Rock and Mark Chiusano

The federal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams has riled top advisers, aides and commissioners — and also tested the many supporters of the city’s campaign finance system.

Adams is accused of seeking and receiving tens of thousands of dollars in illegal foreign campaign contributions funneled through “straw donors” — people who make political donations with other people’s money.

Some of those donations then earned Adams’s campaign even more money through the city’s generous public financing program, which uses taxpayer funds to match eligible donations at a rate of $8 to $1.

The scandal has exposed cracks in New York’s widely admired behemoth of a system, including loopholes that sometimes allow donors who have business with the city or middlemen who handle contributions to skirt the rules.

As the state’s plans to get New Yorkers out of their cars stall, Governor Hochul is championing a highway expansion in the Hudson Valley. Senior reporter Sam Mellins shared the story with Radio Catskill.

 
 
Officers at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility ransacked an incarcerated writer’s cell and confiscated her typewriter. Canva/Min An | Illustration: Chris Gelardi
A week after incarcerated journalist Sara Kielly published an article criticizing the prison system for its solitary confinement practices, officers ransacked her cell.
By Chris Gelardi

Officers at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security women’s prison in Westchester County, ransacked an incarcerated writer’s cell and confiscated her typewriter a week after New York Focus published an article she wrote criticizing the prison system, the writer said. The officers “commented on my journalism career” during the confiscation, she said.

Sara Kielly, a journalist incarcerated at Bedford Hills, reported last week that the prison system has “systematically violated nearly every facet” of a three-year-old solitary confinement reform law.

A few hours after this article was published, authorities returned incarcerated journalist Sara Kielly’s typewriter, according to prisoners’ rights advocates who spoke with her.

 

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Staying Focused is compiled and written by Alex Arriaga
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