Pubs $upport ‘cabaret’ pol

Councilman Rafael Espinal danced all the way to the bank before he introduced his bills to repeal the cabaret-license law and create a city nightlife panel.

Throughout the past year, as Espinal advocated for the nightlife-friendly legislation, some of the city’s biggest bar owners made hefty contributions to the lawmaker’s campaign, including TAO Group COO Bill Bonbrest and Mitchell Banchik, owner of Down the Hatch in the West Village and Jake’s Dilemma and the Gin Mill on the Upper West Side.

Donations from nine industry stakeholders totaled $10,000 and accounted for 9 percent of Espinal’s $108,290 reelection war chest, ac- cording to campaign-finance records reviewed by The Post.

“I think 9 percent from one industry is starting to become a significant portion of his overall funds, such that the public might perceive the industry could have an outsized influence,” said Alex Camarda of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany, noting that such contributions are legal.

Espinal has said he became interested in revoking the 1926 dancing ban after reading about its original intent to discourage interracial mingling at clubs during the Harlem Renaissance.

A spokesman for Espinal said, “There was no lobbying going on whatsoever” and the councilman doesn’t know most of the nightlife donors.