Hamilton Campaign Slams Dorancy for Unitemized Expenditures [UPDATED]

The gloves are off in the race to fill Eric Adams' vacant Brooklyn state Senate seat.

District Leader Jesse Hamilton's campaign issued a strongly worded statement blasting his primary opponent, community activist Rubain Dorancy, for what they deemed its inadequate response to a Capital New York report detailing $75,000 worth of unitemized campaign expenditures listed in Dorancy's filings with the state Board of Elections. In a statement following the report, Dorancy's campaign claimed that the unitemzied expenditures were attributable to "a recent staff transition." 

Hamilton's statement calls Dorancy a "Bloomberg ally," referring to Dorancy's alleged support for charter schools, and attempts to equate Dorancy with Republican state Sen. George Maziarz, who is under federal investigation for tens of thousands of dollars in unitemized campaign expenses. Maziarz recently announced he would not be running for re-election.

"Bloomberg ally Rubain Dorancy’s constant backpedaling raises serious questions about his fitness for office," Hamilton's statement read. "After publicly supporting the California lawsuit to eliminate teacher tenure, Dorancy flip-flopped his position then blamed staff. Now, he’s responding to this serious violation of ethics and transparency in the exact same way.

“Let’s be clear—complying with disclosure requirements and keeping the public informed about campaign spending is not merely a distraction, it’s an ethics obligation of the highest order. That’s why George Maziarz couldn’t get away with merely calling this an oversight, and it’s why Rubain Dorancy won’t either. New Yorkers deserve a real explanation for why nearly 80% of Mr. Dorancy’s campaign spending is unaccounted for. Rubain Dorancy needs to come clean immediately, stop hiding his political spending and explain to the voters why they should trust him when refuses to take responsibility for his own actions and decisions.”

Adding a litigious element to the Hamilton-Dorancy battle, the New York Observer reported on Monday that Hamilton will file a lawsuit today against Dorancy, challenging his residency in the 20th Senate district in an attempt to knock him off the ballot. Sources told the Observer that the suit alleges that Dorancy claimed an out-of-district address as his primary residence in order to take a New York State School Tax Assessment Reduction and listed it as his primary residence during foreclosure proceedings in April.

Dorancy's campaign contributions have come under question as well. A recent filing for indicted state Sen. John Sampson shows a $500 contribution from a "Rubain Doranis" on January 31. The address listed for the contribution is Sampson's Brooklyn district office. Dorancy's campaign confirmed that Dorancy had donated to Sampson, and issued a statement listing various city, state and federal politicians to whom Dorancy has donated. 

"Mr. Dorancy has donated to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, State Senator Kevin Parker, State Senator John Sampson, President Obama and others. In addition he has donated to the Working Families Party, the Human Rights Campaign, various causes for children and organizations to protect wildlife, the list goes on.''

Dorancy's campaign offered no explanation for the misspelling of Dorancy's name and the fact that his address was listed as Sampson's office, pointing out that the mistake occurred in Sampson's filing. When City & State called Sampson's district office to inquire about the error, a Sampson aide refused to cooperate and hung up the phone. When City & State redialed the number and asked for contact information for Sampson's campaign, the aide grew irritable and threatened to "kick [this reporter's] white ass."

UPDATE: Rubain Dorancy's campaign has released a statement indicating that the issue of unitemized expenses reported by Capital New York has been resolved and is reflected on an updated version of his filings.

"When the claim as to Rubain Dorancy’s unitemized expenditures was reported on Thursday, July 24 by Capital New York, the Dorancy Campaign clarified that this oversight was due to recent staff transition, and were in the process of correcting the matter," said campaign spokeswoman Ronnie Sykes.

“This matter was immediately rectified as of Friday morning, July 25th.  We have taken the necessary measures to assure the expenses have been itemized, which can be confirmed through the NYS State’s Board of Elections website for Campaign Finance Disclosure Reports.

“We stand behind running a transparent campaign that is in compliance with campaign finance regulations and focused on addressing the issues impacting our community today.”