No-biz-gift Zeph takes financier $

ALBANY – State attorney general wannabe Zephyr Teachout has touted that she does not take corporate contributions — but that hasn’t stopped her from taking money from individuals in the financial sector.

In fact, $174,210, or more than 11.5%, of the money she raised for her attorney general run so far this year has come from those with ties to the financial sector, according to a review of her campaign financial disclosure filings.

Four donors gave her the maximum $21,000 gift for the primary. They are Thomas Lee, who heads his own private equity firm; Reid Hoffman, an investor at Greylock Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm; Vincent Ryan, founder and chairman of Schooner Capital, and Bradford Burnham, of Union Square Ventures.

“Corporations aren’t people. Period,” Teachout said. “I don’t take corporate PAC money, I don’t take (limited liability company) money. There’s no comparison between individual donors and corporate firms pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into my opponents’ pockets.”

Jack Sterne, a campaign spokesman for Letitia James, the city public advocate who is also running for attorney general, called Teachout’s position “the height of hypocrisy.”