Unions looking to curry favor from – or say thanks to – City Hall raised the bulk of $1.7 million that poured into a mayoral non-profit lobbying group where the sky’s the limit on contributions, records showed Tuesday.
The American Federation of Teachers — parent union of the United Federation of Teachers — contributed a whopping $350,000 to the Campaign for One New York — barely a month before the UFT landed a $9 billion contract with the city.
The teachers’ union could also reap a secondary benefit if its able to unionize the thousands of new pre-kindergarten teachers who are set to bring the mayor’s signature issue to fruition.
Campaign for One New York was formed to push through the mayor’s plan for universal pre-K last December, but has since morphed into a year-round de Blasio promotional arm operating outside the regular campaign finance system.
An total $625,000 was donated by three union groups: SEIU Local 1199, the giant healthcare union that was first to back de Blasio’s 2013 campaign; Unite Here, formerly headed by de Blasio’s cousin John Wilhem; and New York Progress PAC, which spent $1 million fighting Joe Lhota in last year’s general election.
“To have a newly elected mayor start a nonprofit organization to support his big initiative — and then go calling for dollars from those who are involved in the city’s business — is unseemly,” said Dick Dadey, director of the good government group Citizens Union.
Other significant donors in the first six months of 2014 among the 66 contributors were:
- The Rockefeller Family Fund, which gave $250,000
- Edison Properties, whose former CEO is leading the charge to ban horse carriages from Central Park, which donated $25,000
- Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, who gave $50,000 through the Big Hen Group LLC
- Yellow taxi cab interests – who have had de Blasio in their corner on a number of fights against the outer borough green taxis – collectively gave at least $40,000, the records show.
“The Campaign for One New York is supported by people committed to expanding universal pre-K and after-school and the mayor’s broad progressive agenda,” said a spokesman for the campaign, Jonathan Rosen, of BerlinRosen.
The group was originally formed to lobby state lawmakers to support the mayor’s pre-K program, which included higher income taxes on the rich.
When the state picked up the pre-K tab, the group turned its attention to letting Brooklyn residents know how the mayor “saved” Long island College hospital, which is actually closing to make way for high-rise condos with an emergency room.
While some of his best pals were pumping funds into the lobbying group, other donors were writing checks directly to the mayor’s re-election campaign for 2017.
Records show de Blasio has already collected $44,100 and has spent $32,000.