NYCLASS The Anti Horse Carriage PAC
Last week, The
Insider wrote about the Advance Group's independent expenditure campaign
for the animal rights nonprofit NYCLASS, which the firm ran while serving as
the primary campaign consultant for several council candidates supported by the
NYCLASS spending. That included Brooklyn's Laurie Cumbo and Manhattan's Mark
Levine, who won their primaries. As Mr. Levine, Ms. Cumbo and losing Manhattan borough
president candidate Robert Jackson were paying the Advance Group, their
campaigns also got outside help from the teachers union's spending through
mailers designed, printed and sent out by Strategic Consultants. The union's
super PAC paid the apparently fictitious firm more than $12,000 for mailers
promoting Mr. Jackson, more than $18,000 to promote Ms. Cumbo and nearly $3,000
in support of Mr. Levine. As in the case of the NYCLASS spending, that raises issues
of potentially illicit coordination, because the Advance Group was the
consultant for both the teachers union's political action committee and those
campaigns.
Against the Law to Coordinate Campaigns and PACS
Potential coordination between candidates and outside groups
is subject to investigation by the city's Campaign Finance Board, an agency
that has levied stiff penalties in an effort to level the playing field for
candidates enrolled in the city's taxpayer-funded campaign system. City Council
candidates seeking taxpayer matching funds cannot spend more than $168,000. In
a required post-election Campaign Finance Board audit, if the agency finds
coordinated spending between a campaign and an outside group, that spending
counts against the cap, which can result in heavy repayment penalties and
fines. The Advance Group also was the consulting firm for "New
York City Is Not For Sale," a campaign that helped sink the mayoral
candidacy of Christine Quinn. The group collected campaign contributions that far
exceeded state limits. New state campaign finance records show that NYCLASS spent
$202,000 in the days leading up to the Sept. 10 primary elections on candidates
that support animal rights. More than $137,000 of that went to the Advance
Group, NYCLASS' political consulting and lobbying firm. Among the candidates
that received support from NYCLASS were Democratic primary victors Laurie Cumbo
of Brooklyn and Mark Levine of Manhattan, as well as losing Manhattan City
Council candidate Yetta Kurland. At the same time, The Advance Group served as a campaign
consultant for Ms. Cumbo and Mr. Levine, and had served as Ms. Kurland's
consultant through April, reaping more than $150,000 in total from those
campaigns. Especially in the cases of Ms. Cumbo and Mr. Levine, that raises the
question of how. NYCLASS' spending to promote them could have been independent
of those campaigns. The crossover between NYCLASS and The Advance Group is
extensive. They list the same office address, 39 Broadway, Suite 1740, in
Manhattan. The NYCLASS
website lists Advance Group president and founder Scott Levenson as its
political director. The spokeswoman for NYCLASS, The Advance Group, Ms. Cumbo's
campaign and Mr. Levine's campaign is the same person: Ms. Connor. The NYCLASS campaign literature mailed on behalf of Ms.
Cumbo, Mr. Levine and Ms. Kurland were printed by a firm called Trade Media
Partners, which lists a New Jersey address. The firm also printed mailers for
Ms. Kurland's campaign, records show.
The Advance Group, meanwhile, was paid by NYCLASS for live phone banking,
"wages,"
a voter file and other expenses. According to NYCLASS' filings with the
Campaign Finance Board, no phone banking was done out of the Advance Group
offices for Ms. Cumbo or Mr. Levine, although it was done for Ms. Kurland. In
total, NYCLASS spent more than $26,000 on behalf of Ms. Kurland just for
mailers and phone banking, and more than $7,000 on mailers for both Ms. Cumbo
and Mr. Levine.UFT Pays Advance Thought Fake Group to Work for United for the Future PAC
Last week, The
Insider broke the news that the United Federation of Teachers' super PAC
had paid more than $370,000 to a fictitious political consulting firm "Strategic
Consultants Inc.,which produced mailers touting candidates in races
across the five boroughs. " Which was actually the well-known Manhattan consulting
firm the Advance Group. Many of the invoices the agency received from Strategic
Consultants have the Advance Group logo on them. The payments listed as going
to Strategic Consultants obscured that the Advance Group was being paid both to
promote candidates for the United Federation of Teachers' independent political
action committee, United For the Future, and to work as the main campaign
consultant for several of those same candidates. In state campaign finance records, however, there is
a Manhattan address listed for Strategic Consultants: 39 Broadway, which is
also the address of the Advance Group. And in one campaign filing, a suite
number is listed: 1740, the suite number of the Advance Group. "It appears
from the expenditure report that the UFT took pains to conceal a coordinated
effort with a paid consultant for several union-backed candidates," said
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. "This is a disturbing
end-run around the campaign finance laws designed to limit the influence of
big-dollar donors on the political process. The Campaign Finance Board should
promptly investigate the UFT and the Advance Group to quickly determine whether
any violations of the independent expenditure regulations took place and hold
the culpable entities accountable." It's not clear why the Advance Group would have wanted to
have been listed as being paid through Strategic Consultants Inc. instead of
collecting checks in its own name. One political insider briefed on the
arrangement speculated that it was to avoid scrutiny over the
"coordination" issues from the city's Campaign Finance Board.
Advance Runs Conservative Action PAC
The firm also received payments from a socially conservative
political action committee called the City Action Coalition, which
was on the opposite side of Advance Group clients in two council races.In its work on behalf of another outside group called the
City Action Coalition, the Advance Group and Strategic Consultants both took in
payments. In late August, the Advance Group received $36,558.20 from the group.
In early September, Strategic Consultants got the exact same amount. The
Advance Group's work for the socially conservative coalition was also odd
because the consulting firm touts itself as one of the most progressive in the
nation. Its founder and president, Scott Levenson, has worked in the past for
former Public Advocate Mark Green and former liberal advocacy group ACORN.
Advance Worked for for Two Candidates in the Same Race, More Than Once
The Insider wrote that the Advance Group pushed the limits
of campaign finance laws by working for council campaign clients and an outside
group involved in those same races, despite a requirement that there be no
coordination between them. The Advance Group already had a well-paying and longstanding
client in a central Brooklyn race, Robert Waterman(36), and another in a
southern Brooklyn race, Igor Oberman(48). Then in late August the firm began
working for a socially conservative outside group that backed different
candidates in those races, and sending out mailers touting them.
Advance Groups Anti-Gay Mailings
The Advance Group was paid more than $36,000 to produce
mailers for the five candidates backed by the City Action Coalition PAC, which
on its website touts itself as supporting candidates who oppose gay marriage
and abortion rights. The alliance was odd because the Advance Group touts
itself as one of the most progressive political
Consulting firm in the country, and has represented clients such as the
Gay Men's Health Crisis, according to its
own website. The City Action Coalition has drawn scrutiny because in
three of the five races it targeted, its favored candidates were going against
gay contenders, raising questions about whether it had targeted races with LGBT
candidates. The Village Voice reported that the
City Action Coalition's chairman, a Brooklyn bishop named Joseph Mattera, once
wrote about how gay people had "infiltrated" high levels of culture.
He also wrote that they had "successfully humanized their
lifestyle through sympathy and victimhood."
In the 3CD the Advance Group Worked for Kurland and Johnson
The
Insider also reported that the Advance Group's work on behalf of City
Action Coalition-backed candidates conflicted with its work for two of its own
council clients. And the outside work for the teachers union raises another
potential conflict: the Advance Group not only produced mailers promoting
Manhattan council candidate Yetta Kurland for the NYCLASS independent
expenditure, but Strategic Consultants produced mailers touting her opponent,
Corey Johnson, that were paid for by the teachers union. Mr. Johnson won the
primary.
In the 36CD Advance Worked for Waterman and Foy
In the central Brooklyn council race to replace the
term-limited Albert Vann, the Advance Group received more than $64,000 from Mr.
Waterman's campaign, making the firm Mr. Waterman's best-paid campaign vendor.
The firm simultaneously took in more than $7,000 in conjunction with a mailer
touting Mr. Waterman's opponent, Kirsten Foy, for the City Action Coalition.
Robert Cornegy emerged as the top vote-getter by a slim margin over Mr. Foy,
but some ballots remain uncounted and Mr. Foy has not conceded.
In the 48CD Advance Worked for Both Oberman and Deutsch
Meanwhile, in the Brooklyn council race to replace the
term-limited Michael Nelson, Igor Oberman paid the Advance Group more than
$60,000, the most his campaign spent on a single vendor. Yet the firm also was
paid more than $7,000 by the City Action Coalition to print a mailer for his
opponent, Chaim Deutsch, who earned a narrow victory.
___________________________________
CrainsNY Anonymous Source
CrainsNY
Which Use Parkside's Evan Stavisky to Drop Dimes On Levinson's Advance
Group Now Quotes An Anonymous Source to Attack Viverito
Is Stavisky the Anonymous Source?
"I am very certain that he does not want a speaker to his left," the
Democrat explained. "He'll want someone who's not going to push him.
He'll want to do things when he's ready." Mr. de Blasio has reportedly talked up Ms. Mark-Viverito's candidacy,
but many council insiders don't buy it, said the source: "I think he's
floating Melissa out there so she can self-destruct. A lot of people
believe that." The math of the speaker's race still does not bode well for the
Progressive Caucus, the insider insisted. "Brooklyn has 10 to 12 members
[who will be united]; add 13 from Queens, possibly all 14, the two
Republicans from Staten Island, and whatever [Bronx Democratic Chairman
Carl] Heastie has, 5 to 8," the Democrat said. "I believe the county
leaders will work together on this one as opposed to trying to cut each
other out." CrainsNY on the Advance Groups Double Dipping * Bronx county leader pretends "it's up to City Council members" to pick next speaker: * Ydanis Rodriguez Rejoining Progressive Caucus; Backs @mmviverito for Speaker (Councilwatch)
From CrainsNY Series on Advance
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