Where does de Blasio’s $1.1 M in campaign funds come from? Unions, developers lead the way

Over the last two months, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s re-election campaign held more than 20 events and touted the droves of low-dollar contributions it received, citing the effort as a hallmark of grassroots fundraising.

Elana Leopold, the de Blasio campaign’s finance director, said the 2017 re-election team was pleased to see that 72 percent of the contributions it took in over the past six months amounted to less than $250 apiece.

“Mayor de Blasio expanded pre-k for every 4 year-old and raised wages for tens of thousands of workers,” Lepold said in a statement. “Crime is at record lows, jobs are at a record high and New York City ... is building affordable housing at a record pace. But New Yorkers know we have to keep this progress going, and that is why there is so much energy behind our campaign.”

This focus on low-dollar donations comes in the wake of multiple investigations into the mayor and his allies’ fundraising practices – both in election campaigns and on behalf of a nonprofit that promoted de Blasio’s agenda called the Campaign for One New York.

Still, the roughly 1,020 contributions highlighted by de Blasio’s campaign collectively account for about 10 percent of the total $1.1 million taken in during the first half of 2016. The haul had help from several people willing to contribute the maximum allowed during one election cycle – $4,950.

Labor unions and real estate industry executives were particularly generous. Organized labor groups that handed over the maximum amount allowed include a United Federation of Teacher’s committee, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, the New York State Laborers’ PAC comprised of construction unions, and Unite Here Local 100, a regional chapter of a national restaurant and food service workers’ union founded by de Blasio’s relative John Wilhelm and his wife and Unite Here employee Elizabeth Gilbertson.

This July, two unions that represent custodian personnel working in city schools – International Union of Operating Engineers Local 94 and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 891 State Engineers – both directed $4,950 to de Blasio’s campaign, which comes months after he announced plans to reconfigure the school custodian system and about a year-and-a-half after he announced tentative contract agreements with the unions.

Real estate executives also appeared eager to give the maximum, including Howard Lorber, chairman of the real estate company Douglas Elliman, developer Joel Halpern, and George Giannopoulos, an associate director at the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. Another $4,950 came from Jerome Gottesman, founder of Edison Properties, which has ties to an animal rights group pushing for a ban on horse-drawn carriages as well as issues of its own.

De Blasio also took in $4,950 from Joseph Chetrit, a developer who settled a lawsuit alleging he helped launder money stolen from Kazakhstan by funneling it into real estate projects, according to Bloomberg News.

Ignazio Giuffre, another donor who gave $4,950, appears to be part of a car dealership ownership team that paid $1.8 million in 2014 to settle and pay consumer restitution stemming from a New Jersey investigation into allegedly deceptive sales tactics.

Some of the most generous contributors included employees of Allran Electric of New York and The Phoenix Network, which both had staff or contractors collectively send $14,850 to de Blasio’s account.

For all his focus on small bills, de Blasio currently has about $1.7 million in his campaign account, which puts him ahead of two potential mayoral candidates with committees in debt – Michel Faulkner and Josh Thompson – and ahead of rumored challengers such as city Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose account has about $1.5 million.

De Blasio’s fundraising has been scrutinized beyond the typical horse-racing of which candidate has raised more money and attracted which prominent supporters. Earlier this year, a government watchdog group asked the city’s Campaign Finance Board to examine whether de Blasio and his allies breached campaign finance or conflict of interest rules while fundraising for the Campaign for One New York. De Blasio then announced plans to shut down the group, saying it had helped him accomplish his goal of getting the state to help finance universal pre-K in the city.

The Campaign Finance Board ultimately found the nonprofit’s documented spending was not related to the mayor’s 2017 re-election campaign efforts, but that it would monitor whether goods, services or other work produced by the Campaign for One New York is made available to the 2017 campaign.

Indeed, several people and firms that the Campaign for One New York reported paying during the first half of 2016 were also retained at that time by the mayor’s re-election campaign, records show.

The board also recommended the City Council draft legislation regulating elected officials’ relationships with this type of nonprofit, noting that 95 percent of funds received by the Campaign for One New York would be prohibited under city campaign finance laws. De Blasio and his allies’ handling of the Campaign for One New York is reportedly being investigated by state and federal authorities, but nobody has been accused of wrongdoing and de Blasio has maintained he and his colleagues behaved legally and appropriately.