GOP cash king faces rap in selling access to inaug
New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler suddenly is facing what could be his first serious election threat in decades after data obtained by the Daily News shows one of his primary challengers raising more than a quarter of a million dollars.
The campaign of Lindsey Boylan, a former state economic development official, raised $265,000 in the second quarter of 2019, according to data that’s expected to be released Tuesday.
“Congressman Nadler is going to have to contend with a race,” said Boylan (photo) when contacted by The News. “We are in it to win, and we are putting together the building blocks to mount a very serious campaign.”
In addition to a big fundraising haul, Boylan has also landed a big gun, in convincing Hillary Clinton campaign veteran Peter Daou not only to skip mounting his own challenge g to Nadler, but to work with her.
Daou told said after doing his own research on what it would take to unseat Nadler, and then meeting Boylan, he decided she was the better fit, and signed up this week as a senior adviser.
“The more I talked to her the more I thought, ‘Wow, this is a very impressive candidate and person,’” said Daou, who ran Clinton’s digital operation in 2008 and advised her in 2016. “I think she’s really going to pose a serious challenge to Nadler.”
Nadler has mostly coasted to reelection since replacing the late Rep. Ted Weiss in a special election in 1992. He’s gone on to become a wellliked figure in his Manhattan-centric district, and has risen to become the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee at a time when his committee would take the lead on impeaching the president, if it ever gets that far.
The fact that Nadler has deferred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in forestalling a potentially divisive impeachment battle is one of the motivators for Boylan, she said.
“We didn’t elect the speaker in this district. We elected Jerry Nadler to be our member of Congress,” said Boylan. “It’s a time for moral clarity and courage. We need to act and go beyond empty talk.”
She concedes that Nadler is a tough challenge, but says she will show with her campaign that she is up to it.
“I’m going to prove it. We’re going to prove it as a team,” Boylan said. “It’s an honor frankly, and I’m am not afraid at all. I am really excited.”
Nadler’s campaign did not comment for this story. Elliott Broidy, a top Republican fund-raiser who admitting paying hush money to a Playboy centerfold, is reportedly under federal investigation for trading access to President Trump’s inauguration for big bucks foreign business deals.
Broidy (photo) is the target of a Brooklyn grand jury probe into his role as vice chairman of the Trump inaugural committee and his lucrative defense and consulting contracts with officials from Romania and the sitting president of Angola.
Prosecutors have issued a blizzard of subpoenas to the inauguration committee and 20 individuals over Broidy’s role in getting access to Trump and incoming administration officials for the foreign big-wigs.
It would be a crime for Broidy to offer valuable access to the inauguration or Trump in exchange for contracts for his consulting company, Circinus.
Broidy, 64, stepped down as deputy finance chair of the Republican National Committee over reports that he paid $1.6 million to a former Playboy model with whom Broidy had an affair. That payment was arranged in 2017 by Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen and was remarkably similar to deals Cohen forged for Trump to keep a lid on affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and another pin-up girl.
He was a high-flying Trump ally during the presidential transition when he allegedly sought to leverage his connections to win the deals high-ranking officials in the corruption-riddled foreign nations.
Broidy denies doing anything illegal.