12Donation backfires

State Senate’s indie Dems reject cash from pro-gun group

ALBANY — Thanks, but no thanks. The campaign committee for a group of eight breakaway state Senate Democrats and its leader both received $1,000 donations last August from a major pro-gun lobby group.

But campaign finance records show the Senate Independence Campaign Committee returned the contribution weeks after receiving it from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a leading firearms industry trade association.

And Senate Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeffrey Klein (photo) returned his $1,000 contribution from the organization after it was flagged during a routine review by his campaign, spokeswoman Candice Giove said.

While records have yet to show the refund, Giove said it should show up in Klein’s next campaign finance disclosure report in June.

Noting Klein was the Senate’s prime sponsor of the tough SAFE Act gun control law in 2013, Giove said the Bronx Democrat “does not want gun money.”

A National Shooting Sports Foundation official did not return a request for comment.

Thomas King, president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and an NRA board member, shrugged off the refunds while downplaying the role of firearms in recent mass shootings.

“If (Klein) wants to be foolish and give it back, then give it back,” King said. “But why? The firearm did not do anything. It was a person with evil intent or a psychological problem or a mental disability that did it. Gun owners as a whole are good people.”

Overall, the pro-gun lobby gave nearly $140,000 — almost exclusively to Republicans and Conservative Party members — in state and local campaign donations in New York since 2013, records show.

The National Rifle Association, in the five years since the SAFE Act was passed, gave $53,000 in donations in New York, $26,000 of which went to the state Conservative Party.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation kicked in an additional $37,600, while the state Rifle and Pistol Association gave $48,455 to an array of state and local candidates, as well as Republican and Conservative committees.

“New York State has sensible gun violence prevention laws and one of the lowest gun death and injury rates in the country, yet the gun lobby continues to contribute to New York lawmakers who claim they will roll back our progress and loosen reasonable, necessary laws,” said Rebecca Fischer, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “That said, New Yorkers know our laws are protecting them — perhaps now more than ever.”

State Senate Republicans have not passed a gun control bill since the enactment of the SAFE Act angered their conservative base. With Republicans still split over who their gubernatorial candidate should be and no down-ballot candidates having yet come to the fore, there’s increasing fingerpointing at long-time state GOP Chairman Ed Cox. “There’s grumbling and growing dissatisfaction with the performance of Ed Cox,” said one prominent Republican county leader. “There’s a general frustration out there that I haven’t heard since 2010. It’s a sentiment that’s real. It’s not regional and it’s not unique to big counties or small counties.”

State GOP spokeswoman Jessica Proud downplayed the tensions as part of the “sausagemaking” of picking a candidate. Sam Hoyt, a former economic development aide to Gov. Cuomo who recently quit amid a sexual harassment investigation, is starting his own lobbying firm in Buffalo, sources say.

Before working for Cuomo, Hoyt, who is married, was a longtime assemblyman who was sanctioned by the chamber for having an inappropriate relationship with an intern.

“He doesn’t realize how toxic he is right now,” said one source familiar with Hoyt’s plans.

Hoyt did not return a call for comment.