Public-advocate Letitia James is getting a little divine intervention from a Brooklyn church — but the effort might be a sin.
The Christian Times devoted its front page to the council member just in time for her runoff Tuesday against state Sen. Daniel Squadron.
The special edition of the newspaper — the de facto voice of the Brooklyn Christian Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant and its popular pastor, the Rev. Dennis Dillon — is intended to boost black-voter turnout, says an e-mail from a campaign supporter.
But, according to election laws, nonprofits are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns.
That didn’t stop supporters from seeking contributions to fund extra copies of the paper in exchange for the promise of a receipt for the tax-exempt donation.
“Perhaps you know of some people who can donate to this effort. Rev Dillon has taken this on as a project to distribute a special Christian Times edition dedicated to Tish James to pull out the Black church vote for Tish, which should be a no-brainer,” a supporter said in an e-mail.
The goal was to double the newspaper’s 1,500 circulation. The extra editions were circulated Sunday in churches throughout Brooklyn.
Dillon denied that the newspaper is a nonprofit. And James’ campaign said, “We had no coordination with this publication.”
The Squadron campaign called the paper’s support a “blatant misuse of a charity organization for political purposes.”
Both candidates have been trying to motivate supporters to come out to the polls in what could be a low-turnout election.
James received 36.1 percent, and Squadron received 33.1 percent of the Sept. 10 primary vote to force the runoff.