More dirt: pol
GOPer eyes wider probe; Dems call her ‘hack’
ALBANY — A Long Island Republican wants the state Board of Elections to expand an investigation into the use of county party committees by Mayor de Blasio and his team to help Senate Democratic candidates in 2014, the Daily News has learned.
In a letter sent last week to state Board of Elections Chief Enforcement Counsel Risa Sugarman that was obtained by The News, Mary Beth Calamia of Holbrook cited a $50,000 donation procured by de Blasio fund-raiser Ross Offinger from a publicly untraceable Delaware corporation that went to the Nassau County Democratic Committee, which was supporting Todd Kaminsky’s successful run for Senate in a special election last month.
In her complaint, Calamia, a failed GOP candidate for the Suffolk County Legislature, also urges Sugarman to look into funds raised and spent by Democratic committees in Nassau and Suffolk counties on behalf of Senate Dems in 2014.
She cites recent media reports that showed the state teachers union sought to give the Suffolk County Democratic Committee $100,000 that the union wanted earmarked for Democratic Senate candidate Adrienne Esposito, who ultimately lost her 2014 race.
Suffolk County Democratic Committee Chairman Richard Schaffer confirmed to The News on Saturday that after he rejected the money, saying it would have been illegal, the union offered to give different town committees $40,000 it wanted spent on Esposito’s campaign.
The Islip Town Democratic Committee accepted the money, but gave it to several different campaigns, including Esposito’s, which was legal, Schaffer said.
Schaffer called Calamia “a hack” controlled by the Islip GOP.
Nassau County Democratic Committee Chairman Jay Jacobs also called the complaint a political maneuver by the GOP.
“This has become the era of Trump — if you don’t like the outcome, cast doubt on its legitimacy,” Jacobs said. Sugarman found enough “willful and flagrant” violations by de Blasio and his team to warrant a criminal referral to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
De Blasio has repeatedly defended his fund-raising opera- tion as doing everything above- board and has dismissed Sugarman’s report as politically motivated.
Sugarman had no comment.