Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (photo: @RepSeanMaloney)
The race for state Attorney General appears to be the most wide open in the 2018 New York election cycle, at least among statewide races. In the wake of former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s shocking resignation, four Democrats have jumped into a competitive primary that will be decided on September 13, with the winner automatically seen as the frontrunner to win the general election against Republican nominee Keith Wofford and Green Party nominee Michael Sussman.
Recently released campaign finance filings with the state Board of Elections shows candidates’ financial pictures heading into the crucial final weeks of the primary race. Funding numbers not only show what financial resources candidates have to spend to get their messages out, but give indication of the kind of support they are receiving from individuals, corporations, special interests, and so on.
Public Advocate Letitia James, endorsed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State Democratic Party, leads the pack with $1.16 million raised for the attorney general race, and $991,000 cash on hand as of mid-July. On the other hand, Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, who challenged Cuomo in the 2014 gubernatorial primary and won 34 percent of the vote, touted over 10,000 different donations as a show of grassroots support. She is also repeatedly reminding the public who and what she is not taking money from: corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs), and calling on her competitors to do the same.
U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney is another candidate in the race, and while he has mostly been continuing with his work in Washington, D.C. as opposed to being on the campaign trail, he brought in a little more than $1 million for his attorney general campaign, and has about $3 million in his congressional campaign account, which he says he can use, but that interpretation is open to question.
Leecia Eve, a former aide to both Governor Cuomo and then-Senator Hillary Clinton, and the fourth candidate in the primary, has raised the least money of the group.
Wofford, the GOP nominee, raised over $1 million, giving Republicans a sense that he can be a contender against whomever emerges from the Democratic primary.
Democratic candidates in the race have largely been promoting the percentage of the number of contributions they’ve received, not of their total hauls, that have come from small donors, typically meaning those giving under $250. In a similar vein, Cuomo came under fire this week for claiming that 57 percent of his contributions were from small, individual donors rather than the PACs and corporations he is known to solicit. Though the 57 percent number is accurate, the percentage of Cuomo’s total fundraising that the small donations constituted is just 1 percent. Cuomo has over $31 million in the bank, after raising and spending about $6 million over the past several months.
A closer look at the Democratic attorney general candidates’ campaign finance filings shows more about where their support is coming from.
Tish James
James, the New York City Public Advocate, has raised $1,165,897.55, and has $991,480.51 cash on hand as of the July filing. She has raised the most money and has the most cash on hand of any Democratic AG candidate, slightly edging out Maloney on each metric.
James’ largest contributors have been labor unions, with whom James has had a close relationship throughout her political career. Contributions include $65,100 from the New York State Conference of the International Union of Operating Engineers, $26,500 from the Transport Workers Union (both national and local), $25,000 from Communications Workers of America District 1, $22,500 from the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, $21,100 from the Hotel Trades Council and Unite Here Local 6, $21,000 each from the Teamsters’ DRIVE Committee, Mason Tenders, 1199 SEIU, and the New York State Laborers’ PAC, and $20,000 from 32BJ SEIU.
Other contributions include $15,000 from Cablevision, $15,000 from Opportunity Ed PAC, an education reform organization, and $21,000 from the MedMen Opportunity Fund, a cannabis venture capital firm. James also has received ample donations from real estate and law firm contributors, including $10,000 from Two Trees and $10,000 from Slate Property Group, and $5,000 from Renew New York, a PAC controlled by former Republican U.S. Senator and lobbyist Al D’Amato.
Last week, the James campaign told the New York Times that it had raised about $416,000 from individual donors, and about $555,000 from PACs, unions, and corporations. In a press release, James touted that 60 percent of her campaign’s donors gave $200 or less, with 50 percent giving $100 or less.
“I am deeply humbled and proud of the grassroots support I have received from New Yorkers from all walks of life - a true testament to the work we have accomplished and the power of our mission forward. As Attorney General, I will always put New Yorkers’ first and will never be afraid to challenge Donald Trump or anyone who tries to deny our fundamental rights,” James said in the statement.
Zephyr Teachout
Teachout, who also ran for Congress in 2016, losing narrowly to now-Rep. John Faso, has raised $551,347.94, and has $314,058.55 cash on hand.
Teachout, unlike the other candidates in the Democratic primary, has pledged not to take corporate donations, and her July disclosure lists only individual contributors, with no corporations, unions, or PACs listed as having contributed. Her largest donors are Philadelphia attorney Daniel Berger, tech investor Brad Burnham, and Boston venture capitalist Vincent Ryan, all of whom donated $21,000 to the Teachout campaign, which is just under the individual donor maximum for the primary.
Teachout has $148,675.59 in unitemized contributions, or about 27 percent of her fundraising total, far in excess of any other candidate. Contributions of under $99, or an aggregate of contributions from an individual totaling under $99, are not required by the Board of Elections to be itemized with the contributor’s name, address, and amount contributed.
In a press release, Teachout said that 97 percent of her contributors gave less than $200, and that her campaign has received more than 10,000 individual donations.
“This campaign is about people having a legal voice against powerful interests. I'm proud to be 100% corporate free, with the highest percentage of low dollar donors of any candidate for Attorney General. We do not have to accept the cynicism of the status quo, people can have the politics we deserve and demand,” Teachout said in the statement.
Sean Patrick Maloney
Maloney, who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District -- encompassing Orange and Putnam Counties, and parts of Dutchess and Westchester -- has raised $1,127,155.62, and has $981,385.86 cash on hand in his attorney general campaign account.
Maloney’s largest donor is the Lewis family, the founders of Progressive Insurance. The children of Progressive founder Pete Lewis -- Adam, Jonathan, and Ivy -- have donated a total of $135,200 to Maloney’s campaign, with Adam and Jonathan each donating $65,100 and Ivy donating $5,000. Adam’s wife Melony also donated $44,000.
Other donors include Indiana commercial real estate developer David Simon and his wife Jacqueline, who each donated $21,100 to the campaign. The Real Estate Board PAC donated $5,000. Several real estate LLCs donated to the campaign, with the largest being $20,000 from MHTC Development.
While Maloney’s haul is eclipsed slightly by James’, his campaign believes that it can transfer money from his federal congressional account into his state campaign account, which would boost his campaign coffers by up to $3.1 million. The legality of this maneuver is questionable. Maloney, who is simultaneously running for AG and reelection to Congress, won the Democratic primary for his seat last month with the intention of returning to Congress should he not win the AG race. Since the primaries on are different days, it is a move he could attempt.
Maloney ran for attorney general in 2006, losing the primary to Andrew Cuomo, who went on to win the general election as well.
In a press release, Maloney said that 90 percent of his donations were $200 or less, with more than 50 percent being $10 or less.
“I'm the only candidate with the experience and independence to be the AG our state needs - someone who will fight corruption in Albany, in Washington, and in corporate suites - and I'm proud that so many New Yorkers have joined my campaign,” Maloney said in the press release.
Leecia Eve
Eve, who serves on the Port Authority board and works as a governmental relations executive for Verizon, formerly helped lead Empire State Development under Cuomo, and has worked for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, has raised $299,416.14, and has $250,719 cash on hand for her attorney general bid.
Eve’s largest donors have been herself and her family. Eve has donated $35,656.59 to her campaign, in 95 separate donations, the largest of which was $10,000 and the smallest $5.43. Her father, former Assemblymember Arthur Eve, and her mother, Lee, each donated $10,000, while her brother Eric has donated $16,000 and her brother Malcolm has given $525.
Additionally, a consulting firm called Ichor Strategies, of which Eric Eve is CEO, has donated $20,000 (Eric Eve is serving as Leecia’s campaign manager).
Other donations include $21,000 from attorney Patrick Dunican and $5,000 from the Real Estate Board PAC. In a statement, the Eve campaign said that the filing portended good news for the campaign.
“Today’s filing shows we are well positioned to communicate our message throughout all corners of New York State. We are inspired by the level of grassroots support that we have received, and we look forward to continuing to share Leecia’s vision for how she will be a fearless and effective champion for all New Yorkers,” said Maggie McKeon, a spokesperson for the Eve campaign.
Keith Wofford
Keith Wofford, the Republican nominee for AG, has raised $1,048,801.38 and has $1,023,847.76 cash on hand.
His largest donor is the New York Republican State Committee, which has given Wofford $150,000. Other large contributions include $20,000 from consulting firm Simier and Partners LLC, $44,000 from New York State GOP Chairman Ed Cox, and $44,000 each from Jonathan Gill, Stephen Moeller-Sally, and Mark Somerstein, all of whom are partners at the law firm Ropes & Gray, which Wofford is managing partner of.
Wofford has spent $25,000 on the campaign trail thus far. He has no primary challenger, and is facing an uphill battle in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, pending the winner of the Democratic primary, as well as Green Party nominee Michael Sussman, who has raised about $14,000.
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by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Gov. Cuomo voting (photo via the Governor's office)
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday new measures to enhance the security of the state’s elections. They include “comprehensive risk assessments, intrusion detection devices, and managed security services for all county boards of elections,” as well as training for election staff on cyber security.
The initiatives make use of $5 million allocated in the 2019 state budget for enhanced cybersecurity related to elections, which included the creation of an “election support center” and an “election cyber security toolkit,” provides “cyber risk vulnerability assessments” for state and local Boards of Elections, and requires BOEs to report data breaches to the state.
The announcement comes in the wake of the indictment of 12 Russian nationals for interference in the 2016 presidential election, involving the theft and release of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. A news release from the governor’s office said that the state would solicit contracts in the coming days for the risk assessments, intrusion detection devices, and security services for county boards of elections.
The broader issue of election security has become increasingly prominent in the wake of the 2016 election and the allegations of Russian interference. Cuomo’s announcement of new election security measures came just a few hours after a Tuesday panel at City & State’s Protecting NY Summit, moderated by Gotham Gazette’s Ben Max, where panelists discussed the issue as it relates to state and local elections in New York. New York is in the midst of a busy election year that features races for all of its statewide state-level positions, all of its state legislative seats, one U.S. Senate seat, and all of its House of Representative seats, among others.
The panel consisted of State Senators Todd Kaminsky and Liz Krueger; Assemblymember David Buchwald; Michael Ryan, executive director of the New York City Board of Elections; Eric Hodge, of cybersecurity firm CyberScout Solutions; and Eva Guidarini, a member of Facebook’s U.S. Politics and Government Outreach team.
In something of a twist from how New York’s dysfunctional elections are usually discussed, the state’s election security measures in the wake of the 2016 election were highly praised by the panelists. Unlike many states, New York never abandoned paper ballots so as always to leave a “paper trail” in the event of a hack. New York’s voting machines are also not “networked,” but rather are all independent machines. This makes it impossible to hack the entire system or even the machines.
“The election results are stored on the device, on two separate -- they look like flash drives, we call them portable memory devices, PMDs -- one is for unofficial results, the other remains with the machine itself for the official results,” said Ryan. “And, in addition to that, there is paper ballots. So if there was ever a really catastrophic event, we still have the paper to make sure that even though the mischief occurred, the outcome and the integrity of the outcome, which is all we could ultimately preserve, is maintained.”
Still, in the event of a hack, the city and state may still be underprepared. Ryan suggested that the BOE may be due for an increase in staffing to supplement its monitoring services.
Senator Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, ranking member of the Senate finance committee and a member of the elections committee, said that the focus should be not just on whether the 2016 elections were meddled with, but when and how it would happen again, in 2018 and beyond.
“Rather than talk about the fact that, apparently, they are hacking our elections, and we have to assume we’ll have future elections hacked, I think the lesson from yesterday, I agree, the timing was perfect for this discussion, was if you don’t have any faith that your elected officials are going to follow the law and uphold their duties and responsibilities, we are in serious trouble as a state, a city, or a country,” Krueger said, in reference to the press conference held by President Donald Trump alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Twice during the hour-long discussion, Krueger stressed that New York has never adopted electronic-only voting systems, instead opting to leave the paper trail to ensure votes are counted. She explained that she had been part of the fight to ensure paper ballots were still used as many other states were moving to digital-only, which has come back to haunt them.
Ryan noted that the 2016 election-related hacking led the BOE to conduct, for the first time, election security exercises and simulations meant to quickly and efficiently identify and neutralize threats.
“We did our first tabletop exercises in the lead-up to Election Day,” Ryan said of November 2016. “Tabletop exercises are the way that agencies keep the muscles limber, reenacting real world scenarios in a serious way, and we did a tabletop exercise on the Thursday before a presidential election for almost seven hours. Shows you the seriousness with which everyone took that.”
Asked whether New Yorkers should stop expecting immediate and secure election results, Ryan demurred. Kaminsky said he would love to see Long Island election night results come in more quickly, like New York City is able to do.
Ryan indicated that if there was a vulnerability to hacking it would be in the uploading of results from polling places to the BOE, and that if a bad actor was intent on causing some "chaos" they would possibly be able to do that for a short period of time, but that systems, while expensive, are in place to mitigate any effects fairly quickly. There may be some temporary confusion, he said, but it would be quickly corrected.
“If there is a problem,” Ryan said, “we have backup systems in place. We can leverage police department personnel to shut down the uploading of the results from the poll sites, and shift that to the local police precincts.” Ryan said that BOE sytems are now constantly monitored throughout the year through work with New York City's technology department.
Krueger kept to her admittedly skeptical theme by recounting an anecdote of first-year computer science students successfully breaking into voting machines in Ohio within an hour-and-a-half.
“When everyone who takes the college computer class can do it in the first hour and a half, you should be very, very worried,” she said.
Hodge, whose firm is hired by governments to sure up their cyber security and election systems, said that along with the voting machines and election results, the voter databases and rolls should be protected and secured as well. He also said that policymakers should prioritize being able to detect problems immediately, and that New York carefully vet election vendors to ensure that security is prioritized.
"Thankfully," Assemblymember Buchwald said early in the program, "we've had a fairly proactive approach here in New York, not to toot my subcommittee's own horn, or the entire Assembly election committee, but we've actually had already two public hearings on election security, the most recent of which was this past November after the local elections. And if you were at the hearing, if you watched it online, you would have heard the words 'Cambridge Analytica' four months before they became national news."
Governor Cuomo’s announcement of new measures comes on the heels of a new law aimed at securing the state’s elections passed earlier this year. The law prohibits foreign entities from forming independent expenditure (IE) committees to buy ads on social media, requires ad buyers on social media to register as IE committees and for the name of the IE that bought the ad to be clearly displayed, and requires the State BOE to make political communications more transparent and accessible.
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by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette
Gov. Cumo signs ad transparency bill (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)
The recent federal indictments of 12 Russians involved in the country’s interference campaign in the 2016 United States presidential election comes at a time of already heightened interest in election security given other previously known facts and allegations about Russian meddling in the election, the promulgation of “fake news,” attempted hacking of state elections systems, and questionable practices by social media platforms like Facebook. Though election security and integrity at the federal level has dominated people’s attention, it is also an issue at the state and local levels.
For the past two years, policymakers, security companies, and members of the tech and media industries have engaged in more fulsome debate over how to combat issues like “fake news” -- meaning fabricated news stories pushed off as actual news -- and false or misleading ads on social media, not to mention ensuring the security of election infrastructure.
In April, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill, passed in a new state budget agreement that prohibits foreign entities from buying political ads “in order to influence New York elections,” requires political ad buyers on social media to register as independent expenditure committees, requires independent expenditure ads to clearly display that the independent spender, not a candidate, paid for the ad, and requires the state Board of Elections to “create an online archive of all political communications for a set period.”
Some say that while these are important measures, there is more to do to secure New York elections, both in terms of hardening security systems to prevent hacking and reducing the influence of malicious actors in other, “softer” ways. Facebook itself, while the subject of much scrutiny and criticism during and after the 2016 election, is making some reforms to the ways it does business. On Tuesday, a representative for the social media giant called the New York political ad transparency law a model for the rest of the country, while also pointing toward transparency into voter targeting on the platform as a next frontier.
During a panel discussion at City & State NY’s “Protecting NY Summit,” moderated by Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max, Eva Guidarini of Facebook said the company is encouraging users to report questionable content, has begun working with “third party fact-checkers” when potential fake news is flagged, and, if determined to be fake news, posts will receive a tag noting it as such, and be “down-ranked,” meaning it will show up less frequently in people’s feeds, while an explanation of the fact-checking will also be provided. She defended the practice of not removing content unless it is deemed “misinformation,” saying that there can be too many gray areas in defining misleading content. Misinformation would include things like fake news.
Facebook’s actions come after widespread criticism of its platform as a venue for the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories, as well as inappropriate user-data sharing.
Guidarini, a member of the U.S. Politics and Government Outreach team for the company, said Facebook should be the subject of government regulations, but indicated there is a line to ensure that the platform still serves its users. When asked, she also indicated that users must take some responsibility for evaluating content, and said the company is working to help educate people. She also praised the new New York law that applies to Facebook and other online services, which was sponsored in the state Senate by another panelist, Senator Todd Kaminsky.
“We worked really closely with New York and Maryland,” Guidarini said. “We’re really excited about these ad transparency laws that you passed, and we’re now sort of rolling that out to the whole country even though it’s only law in a couple of states. We think that that’s important. The law lagged behind, right? It’s ridiculous that you didn’t have to say who’s paying for a political ad online, even though you did on TV and in newspapers. And we should change that.”
The panel on election integrity included Guidarini; Kaminsky; state Senator Liz Krueger; Assemblymember David Buchwald; Michael Ryan, the executive director of the New York City Board of Elections; and Eric Hodge of CyberScout Solutions, a company that works with government to prevent hacking and other security breaches.
Ryan said that the BOE’s concern has moved from tampering with results towards the manipulation of social media to alter election results.
“We were concerned in the lead-up to election day that people would put out false information that poll sites were on fire or that no voting is happening at particular locations,” Ryan said. “Real misinformation causing chaos as opposed to manipulation of results.”
Sen. Kaminsky, a Democrat representing parts of Long Island, said that he combatted fake news himself in his 2016 election campaign, which led to an extremely close race where one was not expected. He said that the events made him prioritize publicizing the issue as being a state and local issue, not just one related to Donald Trump and Russia.
“There would be a Facebook group that would pop up in someone’s feed called Long Islanders for Clean Drinking Water,” Kaminsky said. “They would then have an ad saying ‘last year, Todd Kaminsky voted to deprive Long Island of $10 million of clean drinking water. And if you liked it, all your friends would see it, it would go up to their feeds. And if you commented on it, all your friends would see it. If you commented something like, ‘this is not true,’ your comment would be removed in, like, ten minutes.”
Kaminsky said that the law passed as part of the budget was a major focus for him in the previous two years. He also criticized the press, claiming that members of the media ran with the Facebook posts without fact-checking them. He said that there are not enough ameliorative pathways for combatting false political information, such as mailers claiming support for Kaminsky from “undocumented aliens” or Mayor Bill de Blasio. The former prosecutor indicated that there is not enough punishment for bad actors, but that his new law would at least change that for those that may try to anonymously post political advertising on social media.
Asked about next steps in regulating social media platforms, Guidarini of Facebook said that, while microtargeted ads are a powerful tool, that “voters should know if the African-American community is receiving a totally different message, or the Hispanic community is receiving a totally different message from the white community from a specific candidate.”
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by Ben Brachfeld, Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette