(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 Columbia University Columbia
University New York
State 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)