Bill de Blasio is taking advantage of a campaign-finance loophole — which he helped establish as a City Council member — that allows unions not representing municipal workers to contribute without limit.
Unite Here, an international labor union whose former president John Wilhelm is de Blasio’s cousin, gave the Democrat’s mayoral campaign more than $20,000 in the first three weeks of October alone by pulling funds from chapters across the country.
The donations came from Oakland, Detroit, St. Louis and Forest Park, Ill.
The union had already given more than $25,000 from other non-New York City chapters, including locals in Chicago, Boston, Atlantic City and Los Angeles.
In 2005, de Blasio led the passage of a bill that defeated an attempt by the Campaign Finance Board to limit the influence of unions by holding that all chapters of a union were to be considered a “single source” of donations.
That action would have limited contributions from unions to $4,950, the same cap that governs individuals and corporations.