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| Bill de Blasio |
De Blasio Proves That Some Laws Are Made to Be Unbreakable
Among the gold medals awarded to Bill de
Blasio on Thursday was one for limbo-dancing his way past
election laws so he and his allies could funnel money into 2014 state
legislative campaigns at a rate 10 times the supposed limit.
Money was not given directly to candidates, but to party
committees, which can receive bigger piles of cash. Those committees could then
legally transfer the inflated donations to candidates.
It makes a sham of the limits, but Mr. de Blasio did not invent
these evasive moves. In just about every single
competitive legislative race in this century someone,
Republican or Democrat, has used precisely the same contortions. Perhaps
because the mayor has a talent for annoying people — he would say, the right
people — the state Board of Elections sicced the office of Manhattan District
Attorney Cyrus
R. Vance Jr. on him a year ago.
On Thursday, the prosecutor said the de Blasio operation
“enabled an unprecedented amount of money to flow” to individual campaigns, but
did so without violating the limits on contributions.
This comes down, then, not to behavior, but to scale. That is
why the gold medal goes to the de Blasio team, which was up against a field of
strong contenders that included Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael R.
Bloomberg, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and the state committees of both the
Republican and Democratic parties. All of them engaged in versions of the de
Blasio team’s tactic of washing big pots of money through state or county party
committees in support of individual candidates.
Mr. Vance, in a letter to the
Board of Elections, suggested that the de Blasio team’s activities contradicted
the “spirit and intent” of the campaign laws.
For this to be true, one would have to believe that the
legislature really intended there to be actual limits on how much money could
be given to candidates. Mr. Vance is correct that the legislature created
limits, but it simultaneously built ways around them; its “spirit and intent”
is like the public piety of a Mafia hitman who makes the sign of the cross when
passing a church on his way to work.
Money washed through a county committee is not subject to the
limits, thanks to an exception in Article 12-124 of the state election law.
Other exceptions have made it possible for the real estate
industry to own an entire chamber of the state legislature, lock,
stock and gavel.
Limited liability companies,
or L.L.C.s, are essentially paper companies used as proxies to let big
companies get around limits by channeling money through them. Common Cause New
York, the good government group, has reported that tens of millions have been
funneled to the state Republicans through L.L.C.s since 1996, when the Board of
Elections ruled that an L.L.C. was no different under the law than a person. Consider this
testimony from an executive at a major real estate company, Glenwood, during
the 2015 federal corruption trial of Dean Skelos, the former majority leader of
the state senate.
Q. Since you’ve been at Glenwood, how much money have the L.L.C.s
donated in contributions?
A. In total?
Q. In total, approximately.
A. Ten million.
In another context, Alan Vinegrad, a former federal prosecutor,
once said, “‘Everybody does it’ is not a defense.’ It’s a confession.”
Mr. de Blasio received news
Thursday morning that he and his allies would not be prosecuted by
Mr. Vance’s office or by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, which was investigating a separate matter, the legality
of favors done by Mr. de Blasio for people who made contributions to a
nonprofit run by his associates.
Prosecutors carry the responsibility to enforce laws. They are not
in charge of good and evil. Nor are they civic hygienists. Nevertheless, Mr.
Vance made the useful suggestion that the Board of Elections could issue
guidance on the tricks used by Team de Blasio — and prominent others, unnamed
by Mr. Vance.
Certain practices deserve our
attention not because they are against the law, but precisely because they are
legal. Moments after the prosecutors’ announcements, Brian Lehrer of WNYC radio
spoke to the mayor on the air.
“Were you looking to get money to the hands of those candidates
through the state committees and understanding the spirit of the law but trying
to just stay within the letter of the law – not caring about the spirit of the
law?” Mr. Lehrer asked.
“Brian, respectfully, I think
that’s an outrageous question,” Mr. de Blasio replied.
Mr. de Blasio loves saddling up on the highest horse he can find. It can be a long way down.
No Charges, but Harsh Criticism for de Blasio’s Fund-Raising
