A lawyer for Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaign has alleged the election board of New York of aiming a criminal inquiry into fund-raising methodology. The lawyer complained that the board has misunderstood the electoral campaign process. The letter by the lawyer of Bill de Blasio's re-election campaign, Laurence D. Laufer, arrived two days after the release of Risa S. Sugarman's January accounts report.
In the report, Risa Sugarman, the enforcement counsel head of the board, discovered voluntary violations of electoral law by a team of political people called as Team de Blasio. The mayor's team was created in 2014 with an aim to regain Democrats' position in the state senate. In the report, Sugarman said that the Team de Blasio attempted to dodge the standard contribution level set by the board by diverting huge amounts via campaign committees in the state and country. The state campaign team then distributed the fund to three senate campaigns, as reported by The New York Times.
Sugarman pointed out that such groups can avail bigger donations, which calculates around $102,300, than a distinct candidate, for whom the contribution is restricted to $11,000 a benefactor during the State senate's general election. Following the analyzing process by the four commissioners of the board, the report was sent to Cyrus R. Vance, the attorney in the Manhattan district court, leading to a criminal inquiry. The investigation is being conducted along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's group.
However, Laufer defended the campaign activities saying, "I am at a loss to understand any proper purpose that could have been served by a criminal referral." He also condemned the unlawful release of Sugarman's report, pointing to the board's lack of ability to preserve privacy, which was a total negligence of duty. But Sugarman, who defended her move, said that her job was to conduct inquiries individually and honestly.
Meanwhile, many activists have asked Bill de Blasio to resign from his post. A previous affiliate of Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Tony Herbert, said that the mayor must step down from his office if he really cares for the people. The protestors also promised to add more activists at the City Hall. Herbert added that the mayor has bargained New York's veracity, as reported by NEW YORK POST.
In addition, web petitioners in change.org and moveon.org had lured many supporters in 2014 asking the mayor to resign. Karen Hinton, the mayor's spokeswoman, defended his act saying that Bill de Blasio's efforts complied with the law in all aspects.
WNYC reported that the mayor will allocate nearly $20 million as incentive financing for the election board of New York if it okays to execute series of adjustments as per his proposal. The declaration came after WNCY's Brigid Bergin discovered that several Democratic electorates in Brooklyn were delisted from the roll.
Bill de Blasio promised to pay $1.5 million to the agency to maintain an external consultant and to create an election team to fix systematic problems in the organization. The agency would need to enter into a binding deal within June 1 to receive the amount to enhance election worker training.
