Wealthy New York Developers Meet to Plot Mamdani’s Defeat
From The New York Times: Some of New York City’s wealthiest business leaders and real estate developers have begun meeting to attempt to stop Zohran Mamdani from winning the city’s mayoral race. NYC’s wealthy elite have begun to consolidate support around Andrew Cuomo, who lost the Democratic primary to Mamdani and is now running as an independent. In addition to supporting Cuomo, they have also begun pressuring current mayor Eric Adams to drop out rather than split the anti-Mamdani vote, with support from the Trump administration. It was previously reported that the administration was considering offering Adams the ambassadorship to Saudi Arabia, although that plan appears to have fallen through.
Norfolk County sheriff to pay over $36K after alleged misuse of campaign funds
From NBC 10 Boston: The Sheriff of Norfolk County, MA, Patrick McDermott, has been fined over $36,000 by the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. The Office found that he used about $37,000 of his campaign funds for private expenses, including paying for services for his private business, catering for an event for his nonprofit, and food for a real estate business meeting. McDermott claims that the expenses were “intended for legitimate political purposes,” but did not dispute the Office’s findings and agreed to pay the fines.
Arizona Supreme Court hears Prop. 211 arguments
From Tuscon.com: In 2022, Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 211, a campaign finance transparency law that requires entities making campaign expenditures above $50,000 to disclose the source of their funds. Now the Arizona Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a lawsuit intended to overturn the law. Opponents claim that requiring donors to be identified could lead to donors being targeted, and that the law infringes on free speech, while proponents argue that transparency is necessary for voters to cast an informed ballot, and point out that financial donations are not speech.
Former Secretary Pleads Not Guilty To Making Illegal Political Donations
From Honolulu City Beat: In a rare prosecution in Hawaiʻi, a former secretary for a Honolulu engineering firm has been charged with making illegal straw donations to a Honolulu mayoral candidate in the name of her relatives. The charges come after a connected federal case, in which the secretary and her associates were charged with directing political contributions to a city prosecutor in exchange for retaliatory prosecutions of a former employee of their firm.
