Thursday, June 19, 2014

Bill de Blasio and New York City's Clintongate Scandal: A Tale of Three Phonies--Part 11

(A shorter version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of the Lower East Side underground/alternative newspaper, “The Shadow”)

Bill de Blasio’s 2013 Campaign Contributors

Besides apparently being able to collect up to $1,050 in public matching funds for each individual wealthy New York City resident who contributes over $175 to de Blasio’s 2013 campaign to succeed Billionaire Plutocrat Bloomberg as the Big Apple’s mayor in 2014, the campaign committee of de Blasio has collected over $5.7 million in campaign contributions, including a lot of individual campaign contributions of $4,950 from a number of extremely wealthy folks. As Christopher Robbins observed in an Oct. 6, 2013 article on the Gothamist website:

“…We poked around the New York City Campaign Finance Board's handy searchable database to see who is emptying their pockets for a Mayor de Blasio.

“First: the Big Names. De Blasio said he'd build (metaphysical) "spaces" for Occupy Wall Street to thrive in, but Zuccotti Park's namesake, John Zuccotti of Brookfield Properties, donated $4,950 to the candidate during the last filing period, the maximum amount allowed by law….Real estate developer Ben Shaoul, who sits on the vanguard of gentrification in the East Village, also donated the $4,950 maximum to de Blasio…So did real estate mogul Ed Scheetz.

“Michael Ratner, Karen Ranucci, and Ellen Ratner, who are developer Bruce Ratner's brother, sister-in-law, and sister, respectively, all donated the maximum amount to de Blasio's campaign…David Belt, a founding partner of DBI Construction Consultants… also donated the maximum amount to de Blasio, as did Jack Cayre, the CEO of Midtown Equities, the firm that is building the giant Yuppie Condo Mall at the Empire Stores site in DUMBO…And so did the co-founder of Bed Bath & Beyond, Leonard Feinstein.

“Billionaire…Alexander Rovt donated to de Blasio last year, but his son Maxwell, who is the Chief of Real Estate for the family business, IBE Trade Corp, donated $4,950 to de Blasio this past cycle. (His mother and father each donated $2,475 the previous cycle, in addition to other contributions made last year.) Meanwhile, the Soros family—George, Alexander, Andrea, and Jonathan, donated a total of $13,025 last cycle….Igor Medvedovskly, the general manager of Yellow Cab Medallion Company also donated $4,950 last month.

“As for Wall Street: Neil Mitchell, Morgan Stanley's private wealth executive director (and former senior VP at Lehman Brothers) donated $4,700 last cycle…”

Despite receiving a lot of money in campaign contributions from various labor union bureaucrats, de Blasio has also accepted big campaign contributions from the following individuals over the last few years: 1. $4,950 from William Zeckendorf of Brown Harris Stevens; 2. $4,950 from Arthur Zeckendorf of Terra Holdings; 3.  4,950 from Loudas Zoumas of The Avaris Group;  4. $4,950 from Alen York of Alen Sands York Association; 5. Over $4,950 from Joanne Wycott of Southhampton, New York; 6. $500 from Alice Wolf of Cambridge, Massachusetts; 6. $4,950 from Gilbert Winn of Boston, Massachusetts; 7. Over $4,950 from John Wilhelm of Santa Barbara, California; 8. $4,950 from Victor Weingarten of Gotham Yellow Taxi;  10. $3,475 from Rob Wavra of The Sentinel Homeland Security Group in Fairfax, Virginia; 11. $4,500 from James Vasey of Cab Management Corporation;  12. $2,500 from Michael Varner of JP Morgan Chase; 13. Over $4,500 from Jeff Thamkittikasem of The Sentinel Homeland Security Group;  14. $4,950 from Robert Tannenhauser of the Ruxton Capital Group; 15. $4,500 from Carol Tannenhauser of the Ruxton Capital Group; 16. $4,950 from Jay Snyder of HBJ Investment; 17.$4,950 from Robert S. Rubin of JP Morgan Chase; 18. $4,950 from Steven G. Rubenstein of Rubenstein Communications; 19. $4,950 from John Rove of Columbia University; 20. $4,950 from Nan Cooper Rothschild of Columbia University; 21. $4,950 from the New York State Economic Growth PAC; 22. $4.950 from Amy O’Donnell of Procter & Gamble;  23. $4,950 from W. Patrick McMullan of Bear Stearns; 24. $4,950 from Sanel Ljesnjanin of Millenium Taxi; 25. $4,950 from David Kuperberg of Cooper Square Realty; 26. $4,950 from Timothy Ingrarasa of Goldman Sachs; 27. $4,950 from Neil Greenbaum of All Taxi; 28. $4,950 from Howard Gottlieb of Glenwood Investment Capital; 29. $4,950 from Eugeny Friedman of the Taxi Club; 30. $4,950 from Alexander Durst of The Durst Organization; and 31. $400 from Cooper Union Trustee Jeffrey Gural.
(end of part 11)


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