Good news from the courts: The union catspaw Working Families Party took one in the chops this week.
And this one’s got to hurt: The WFP’s for-profit campaign arm, Data & Field Services, will be shuttered. Plus, DFS must pay a whopping $100,000 in court costs.
It couldn’t have happened to a smarmier gang of schemers.
As The Post has reported extensively, the point of the WFP is to give organized labor an even greater influence in city and state politics — pushing New York toward insolvency to satisfy labor prerogatives.
State Supreme Court Justice Anthony Giacobbe determined last year that the WFP broke campaign laws in 2009 by letting DFS run a massive get-out-the-vote operation while charging rock-bottom prices that gave WFP candidates an advantage.
And 2009 was indeed a banner WFP year: In a city where incumbents almost always win, three of four sitting council members lost to WFP-backed contenders. The WFP-DFS alliance also helped Comptroller John Liu and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio win.
As part of last year’s judgment, the WFP was ordered to sever formal ties to DFS.
It didn’t. So Giacobbe found the WFP in contempt and ordered DFS dismantled, with the party forced to pay court costs to lawyer Randy Mastro — a former Giuliani deputy mayor who had sued on behalf of five disenfranchised candidates.
But here’s a question: Where the heck was the Campaign Finance Board while all of this went on? Judge Giacobbe’s original finding showed that WFP clients benefited illegally from the DFS scheme. But the CFB is supposed to curb such shenanigans.
Why hasn’t it acted? Will those who profited from WFP illegalities cruise through re-election before the CFB cracks down?
Will it ever crack down?