Scrutiny of Advance, Levenson Heating Up

News Analysis from City & State City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell

After an election season spent walking the legal and ethical tightrope, Scott Levenson appears to be losing his footing.

That was the buzz among several political observers after the New York City Campaign Finance Board fined two City Council members—Laurie Cumbo of Brooklyn and Mark Levine of Manhattan—for accepting prohibited contributions from New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets (NYCLASS), an animal rights organization represented by Levenson’s Advance Group—the consulting firm which also happened to be employed by the two Council members' campaigns.

While on the face of it, the fines were hardly the most substantial leveled by the CFB—Cumbo owes $7,868 and Levine $8,686—the significance of the penalties are best understood in the larger context of Levenson’s firm, and the red flags raised by their repeated appearances of illegal campaign coordination.

Crain’s reported in September that NYCLASS spent $202,000 in the days leading up to the primary election on candidates who support animal rights, $137,000 of which went to the Advance Group, while the organization also donated to the campaigns of Advance clients' Cumbo and Levine. Adding to the appearance of impropriety, both Advance and NYCLASS shared an office space.

Then, in October, Crain’s reported that United for the Future, the super PAC of the United Federation of Teachers, the city’s teacher’s union, paid more than $370,000 to a fictitious political consulting firm, “Strategic Consultants, Inc.,” whose listed address, like that of NYCLASS, is the same as the Advance Group's.

Cumbo and Levine were among the beneficiaries of the teachers union’s spending through mailers designed, printed and sent out by Strategic Consultants during their 2013 campaigns. The CFB probed the Advance-Strategic connection, and indicated in its statement about the fining of the two Council members that Advance is not likely to elude punitive action.

"The penalties levied today against the Cumbo and Levine City Council campaigns represent only the first step in this proceeding," said Campaign Finance Board Chair Rose Gill Hearn. "The Board will consider violations and penalties for the other parties to these transactions.”

The intensity of the scrutinty directed at Levenson is heating up, partially owing to that fact that Advance’s web of influence extends far and wide, but also because of the role he played in helping Bill de Blasio become mayor and Melissa Mark-Viverito become speaker.

Lest we forget, NYCLASS and Advance spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the “Anybody But Quinn” ad campaign, which mercilessly attacked former Council Speaker and onetime mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn over her reluctance to ban horse carriages. The ABQ campaign, a number of experts have observed, contributed to Quinn’s precipitous decline as a candidate, and, as a consequence, helped clear the field for de Blasio—a horse carriage opponent—to make his ascent to City Hall. Levenson himself beamed to the Observer back in August 2013 about ABQ's effect on Quinn, "We are the single most important factor in her rise in negatives and her drop in the polls. There’s not a doubt in my mind."

Last month the Daily News reported that the FBI is investigating whether Levenson, on behalf of NYCLASS, threatened two of Quinn’s aides by telling them if she did not back the proposed ban on horse carriages, the organization would run a blitz of ads against her during the campaign.

Adding to the intrigue around possible improper coordination, the News wrote that the FBI is examining the timing of de Blasio’s campaign pledge to ban horse carriages, which came shortly before NYCLASS launched its ad campaign against Quinn. Of alleged interest to the investigation is a $175,000 donation made to NYCLASS by John Wilhelm, a cousin of de Blasio’s and former labor leader. That donation was first reported by Crain's. 

Furthermore, the Post  wrote in April that the attorney general’s office and the city Department of Investigation had also opened investigations into Advance and Levenson, in part because of Levenson's relationship with Mark-Viverito. Levenson apparently offered the Council Speaker free consultations while she was campaigning for the leadership position, a potential violation of the City Charter. Mark-Viverito later dropped Advance Group before she was elected Speaker.

Now the powerful connections Levenson seemed to wield so expertly during the last election cycle only heighten the interest in some of The Advance Group's questionable practices. It bears watching in the coming months if more of Levenson’s clients will get entangled in the loose ends of the 2013 race.

CORRECTION: This article incorrectly credited The New York Times instead of Crain's for first reporting the $175,000 donation to NYCLASS by John Wilhelm.