Kesten, Harckham, Absent From List Refusing De Blasio PAC Money

SOUTH SALEM, NY - This week Politico published a list showing most Democratic State Senate challengers they surveyed would refuse to accept campaign contributions from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's Fairness Political Action Committee. Two challengers from the Hudson Valley did not appear on that list leaving voters wondering if Mayor de Blasio is planning another assault on the Hudson Valley like he did in 2014. In response to inquiries from voters, the Committee to Elect Terrence Murphy is calling on two of those candidates to publicly state whether they will accept campaign assistance from Mayor de Blasio.

The Politico survey revealed a majority of the fifteen surveyed wouldn't accept the mayor's aid even if offered. However, neither Robert Kesten nor Peter Harckham, Democratic challengers in the 40th Senate District, said they would refuse such assistance.

Martha Ruiz Jiménez, the spokesperson for Senator Terrence Murphy's campaign said, "Both Peter Harckham and Robert Kesten need to unequivocally state where they stand. Are they with Mayor Bill de Blasio? Or are they with the people of Westchester and the Hudson Valley? That is the only question the press should be asking."

Kesten has already employed BerlinRosen, a de Blasio connected consulting firm at the center of the investigation by federal prosecutors and the FBI investigation into how campaign funds were used in 2014 New York State Senate races, which was launched following a complaint to the State Board of Elections by Murphy's campaign. According to Board of Elections records, Kesten has already made several payments totaling thousands of dollars to BerlinRosen. The independent enforcement counsel at the Board of Elections found the Mayor's actions to be "willful and flagrant" violations of the election law.

While Harckham has no overt connection to Mayor de Blasio thus far, Ruiz Jiménez criticized his refusal to go on record after having pitched himself as being personally recruited into the race by the Mayor's nemesis, Governor Andrew Cuomo. "Peter Harckham has already been trying to downplay his association with Governor Cuomo most notably by strangely omitting a $7000 campaign contribution from the Governor's campaign in his July campaign finance filing," she said.

The Democratic candidates who said they'll say "no thanks" if Mayor de Blasio offers them his PAC money include John Liu, James Gaughran, Lou D'Amaro, Anna Kaplan, Aaron Gladd, Pramilla Malick and Amanda Kirchgessner¸ Politico reported. Insiders consider several of the candidates listed as those in a top tier race this November.

The Mayor has a long and sordid association with trying to buy the 40th Senate District seat. In 2014, he dispatched Mayoral aide Jonathan Viguers to work on the campaign of failed State Senate candidate Justin Wagner. During 2015-6, Viguers was subsequently named throughout emails between the Mayor and BerlinRosen that the Mayor sought to have withheld from the press under the "agents of the city" loophole, which Senator Murphy subsequently authored and passed legislation to close.

BerlinRosen not only worked for the Mayor's campaign and the campaigns of his preferred State Senate candidates, but was also retained for government contracts by the Mayor's two defunct non-profits. The donors to these non-profits were the same contributors who gave money to little-known local Democratic Committees, which can accept contributions far in excess of what an individual candidate is allowed to accept.

The sleepy committees promptly transferred those exact sums to such candidates, structuring and disguising the payments, nearly all of which were from individuals with business before or pending before New York City. Senate candidates like Wagner then retained BerlinRosen and other de Blasio connected firms such as Red Horse Strategies to provide campaign consulting services.

In 2016, the Democratic candidate in the 40th Senate District, Alison Boak, retained Red Horse strategies in her race. She was defeated by Murphy in a landslide that November.