$47,000 fine for campaign fund abuses
BHARARA, VANCE WORK ON EVIDENCE
MAYOR DE BLASIO was hit with over $47,000 in fines for violating campaign finance rules— including having his partially taxpayer-funded campaign pick up the tab for a makeup artist for his family and a six-figure payout to his buddy’s PR firm that appeared unwarranted.
The huge fine is one of the highest on any of the 2013 campaigns.
The Campaign Finance Board, in a determination released Thursday, levied most of the $47,778 in fines against the mayor for what it called “impermissible” post-election spending.
The $21,159 fine for that violation largely stems from a $168,750 payout to Hilltop, which employed de Blasio’s campaign manager Bill Hyers.
The board found no documentation explaining why Hilltop received that much for its work, saying the mayor declined to submit an itemized list of why the work was needed.
A de Blasio spokesman said Hilltop was entitled to the money, arguing, finance board’s “own rules would prohibit Hilltop from not charging for this campaign wind-down work.”
The board also found de Blasio submitted $3,227.97 in expenditures that it deemed improper.
Among those was a 2010 trip to Washington for the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
De Blasio had his then-new mayoral campaign pick up the $298.70 flight for his son Dante. His staffers justified it as “an opportunity” to show Dante, who is biracial, “as a visible manifestation of how the candidate’s life experience was resonant to the spirit of the occasion.”
The Campaign Finance Board ruled it wasn’t a campaign expense.
Team De Blasio also tried to expense $550 to makeup artist Gina Riggi to spruce up the family on Election Night 2013, saying in the “age of television” it’s necessary to look good. The board said no “grooming” expenses are allowed.
Another expense that didn’t fly with the CFB involved a 2012 trip to California.
The board said since de Blasio only raised one donation from a California resident on the trip, he needed more documentation. He never showed any.
The hotel he stayed at is in the same town where his daughter Chiara was in college. His rep said he did visit his daughter, but the trip was for fund-raising.
The board also found the campaign didn’t give paperwork for dozens of “bundlers,” who bring in contributions from donors. There was no paperwork for bundler Jona Rechnitz, who is at the center of the NYPD probe, the CFB found.
A spokesman for de Blasio’s campaign said they “strongly disagree” with the findings, and defended the makeup expenses as appropriate. De Blasio’s fine was lower than the $65,000 his 2013 challenger Anthony Wiener was hit with earlier this month for campaign violations.