Posted on 04/06/2019 7:07:42 PM PDT by EinNYC
A new ethical firestorm is engulfing Mayor de Blasio as questions are being raised about where he’s getting all the money to fund his cross-country presidential campaign trips.
It’s deja vu all over again for “On The Road Bill,” the mail-it-in mayor of New York City who has been galloping all over the country to test the presidential waters with a suspicious campaign cash box that’s raising lots of eyebrows.
“To me, that’s a real no-no,” Betsy Gotbaum of the Citizens Union said.
Gotbaum is questioning how de Blasio is raising money for his “Fairness PAC” – the political action committee that is allowing the mayor to dream about running the country.
“Is it the appearance of something wrong?” CBS2’s Marcia Kramer asked the government watchdog’s executive.
“I think it is something wrong. I think you do not take money from people who are doing business with or who want to do business with the city. I’m shocked,” Gotbaum replied.
The mayor, who has already been the subject of an investigation into an earlier political action committee, is now being asked to explain two new issues.
One is a fundraiser held in Boston on Friday by John Fish of Suffolk Construction.
The company is apparently so keen to expand into New York City that it hired disgraced former NYCHA chair Shola Olatoye, who de Blasio shockingly kept praising even after she was forced out in the agency’s lead paint scandal.
The second issue is the city’s $173 million deal to buy 17 buildings to use for affordable housing. The lawyer for that deal is a donor to de Blasio’s PAC.
City Comptroller Scott Stringer subpoenaed the records because the buildings were first appraised at just $50 million – less than a third of the deal’s final price tag.
“When I feel that things are being done in secret, that we don’t get the data, when you have a huge purchase of $173 million… we use the power of subpoena to get the documents,” Stringer explained.
The mayor started Friday in Boston – for the questionable fundraiser – and then flew to Nevada on his presidential quest.
The mayor insisted everything is on the up and up and that he is following all the fundraising guidelines.
When asked if he was willing to have a company seeking business that needs city approval host a political fundraiser, de Blasio excused his behavior by saying, “I’m a participant in a political world where that is the only way to get the resources to get your message out.”
“The vast majority of candidates out there… this is what we have to do to get our message out. It’s just reality,” de Blasio claimed.
A spokesman for the lawyer involved in the city’s questionable real estate deal insisted he never discussed the details with the mayor.
A spokesman for Suffolk Construction would not talk about the fundraiser with CBS2, saying only that the company was “proud” to be making strides in New York.
Despite all the money flowing in from eyebrow-raising sources, it doesn’t seem to have bought Hizzoner a single vote. A presidential poll by the Des Moines Register last month gave him a zero. He was not named as a first choice for president by a single poll respondent in the swing state of Iowa.
According to a new Quinnipiac poll, nearly 80 percent of New Yorkers also disapprove de Blasio’s farfetched dream to live in the White House.
Ask his wife...
Impossible.
Bill tells everyone he’s a socialist.
He dreams of pulling turnips at Turnip Commune #34.
De Blasio vows to ‘get on plane’ and join union picket line during Vegas trip
https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/de-blasio-vows-to-get-on-plane-and-join-union-picket-line-during-vegas-trip/amp/
$173 million for property appraised at $50 million? $50 million for the property, $123 million for the politicians.
From “Out Of Town Brown” to “On The Road Bill”, it’s comforting to see that my old home town keeps some traditions alive.
Yep..
and follow the money. Where did those millions of dollars go???!!
[Impossible.
Bill tells everyone he’s a socialist.
He dreams of pulling turnips at Turnip Commune #34.]
The actual legal reasoning the judge used to let Bill off the hook in the corruption trial where the informant wore a wire and all the bribes and scams were laid out was that there was no one particular favor that you could tie the bribes to. That is so outrageous.
in a.k.a. DeBlasio’s defense, he’s a corrupt liar.
De Blasio ‘Doesn’t Recall’ $100K Donation in Alleged Pay-to-Play Scheme
New York Post | October 29, 2017 | Michael Gartland and Max Jaeger
Posted on 10/30/2017 12:42:20 AM by nickcarraway
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3599810/posts
De Blasio’s Horse-Drawn Carriage Ban: Is It Really About Campaign Cash?
American Spectator | 1-6-14 | Robert Stacy McCain
Posted on 1/6/2014 1:56:41 PM by digger48
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3108939/posts
If you don't have qualified candidates who speak truth to power, what do you think those voters are going to do?
This is simply a failure of the Republican Party that continuously cede big-city and blue state races to the Dems without giving these voters an honest choice.
“$173 million deal to buy 17 buildings to use for affordable housing...”
Using taxpayer money to buy private property.
Do the math. That’s more than $10 million each.
Including kickbacks.
As for the “laziness and apathy of New York voters” who elected DeBlablah with only 22%, what about the surrender of the Republican Party, which repeatedly fails to support candidates in these cities where the majority is BEGGING for candidates to represent their interests?
They’re sitting out the elections because they’ve no one to vote for.
And those are his strong points.
It’s a vicious circle. The state party won’t give funds for people who are bound to lose.
The problem started years ago when we were asleep and the city council was expanded, supposedly in the interests of diversity but really to swing it totally to the left.
Now we have 8-to-1 matching funds from the public trough for everyone who runs in a city election. 8-to-1. That’s why we had 17 people running for public advocate in February.
It’s insanity.
The whole city is dominated by the esquerdopatas.
But that’s what I’m saying— the dem candidates are so far out there, that a Republucan candidate who appeals to the common sense middle is bound to WIN.
It doesn’t make sense for Repubs to refuse to give money based on an assumption the candidate will lose.
What’s happening is Repub voters AND a majority of Dem voters are SITTING OUT these elections.
Result is the “esquerdopatas”* are being elected by a tiny minority of total voters.
*Yes, you sent me to the dictionary. LOL. Thanks! ;-)
I don’t know where you live, but nothing is going to save us here.
Republicans don’t vote because they know they’ll lose, and Democrats don’t vote because they know they’ll win. Result: Very sparse turnout at the polls, which allows people like Blasio and Ocasio to win with a very small percentage.
The Trump hatred is now so great that all Republicans are hated by contagion. The leftards just LOVE someone to hate, and hate they do, knocking hats off people’s heads and throwing coffee in their faces. No matter how moderate, or even left-leaning, a Republican is, the very label is enough to condemn them.
The only respite I get is when I say I’m not a registered Republican (true). Then the hatred vanishes from their face and they are a little curious about what exactly I am.
If I thought the president was a racist Nazi, I would probably act the same way (well, maybe not but I would want to). But the media have done such a swell job of brainwashing the masses that they are all convinced he’s Hitler.
Of course the leaders behind it all know he isn’t-—they just want to be back in power in 2020 and will tell all the lies necessary to get them there.
See my comment #14 on this thread.
I worked for a Republican candidate in 2002, and since it was the Upper East Side, it started to look like he might have a chance. So the state party gave him a few million. Otherwise, they don’t. It’s just throwing money away.
As I said, it’s a vicious circle. Once we are in this bad of a shape, much worse than 2002, it can never get any better.
I know the one thing that might work but I’d be a fool to tell it here. If a campaign really wanted my advice, and not just my labor, I’d tell them.
De Blobbio has raised so many presidential trial balloons ...the gas company is running out of helium.
Where's he getting the money for his foolhardy quest?
De Blobbio gave his wife $850m tax dollars for (cough) mental health projects.
But she can't account for any of it or the 41 programs staggering amounts of tax dollars are paying for......
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