Good morning. It’s Monday; James Barron is off this week. Today we’ll look at a candidate for State Assembly who received more than $162,000 under the state’s matching-funds program — and got less than 6 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary last week. We’ll also get details on why New Jersey regulators are reviewing liquor licenses at two of Donald Trump’s golf resorts.
New York State went to unusual lengths to give a long-shot candidate for a State Assembly seat in Queens more than $162,000 in taxpayer money for his campaign, even though the paperwork he submitted to regulators lacked information their handbook called for.
That candidate, Dao Yin, was trounced in the Democratic primary last week, pulling in less than 6 percent of the vote.
The New York Times revealed right before the primary that Yin’s campaign had submitted fake donations and forged signatures to obtain much of the money. On Thursday, the state’s Public Campaign Finance Board voted unanimously to adopt an emergency resolution meant to tighten its rules and prevent future abuses.
Under the state’s new matching-funds program — largely modeled on the one that New York City created almost 40 years ago, when Edward Koch was mayor — candidates can receive taxpayer money to finance their campaigns by submitting proof that they have received small donations from supporters in their districts.
Yin reported raising $27,648 from 299 people, with 80 percent of the individual donations listed as cash, the least traceable form of contributions. No candidate receiving matching funds from the state this year relied more on cash than Yin did.
The state’s matching-funds system is more generous than the long-established one in the city, which helps to explain why Yin’s campaign received such a large amount despite taking in relatively little money from private donations. State candidates in competitive races can get as much as $12 in public financing for every dollar in a donation of $5 to $250.
The state’s largess was intended to reduce the influence of big money in Albany by rewarding candidates who rely on small contributions, as Yin claimed that he had.
But The Times found that some of the donor cards Yin submitted to the state carried forged signatures. And at least 26 people who were listed as donors to Yin’s campaign said they had not contributed. Eleven others whom Yin identified as having given money no longer live at the addresses listed in the records Yin filed.
“This is crazy,” Raheem Zadran, whose name was on the list of Yin’s contributors, said. “I never donated to this guy. I don’t know who the hell he is.”
The change approved last week requires that contribution cards turned in by candidates include donors’ telephone numbers or email addresses. The system’s guidelines already called for candidates to provide that information, but the board had allowed candidates to sidestep those guidelines by submitting “good-faith letters” saying they had tried to get it.
The board allowed Yin to submit such letters for nearly 300 cash donations. No other candidate turned in good-faith letters. The action the board took on Thursday was aimed at eliminating that loophole.
Asked if The Times’s reporting had prompted the board to act, a commissioner, Peter Kosinski said, “You can draw your own conclusions.”
Last week, the board also said it had sent a referral about a candidate to a law enforcement agency. But the board did not detail the potential violations that were at issue or name the candidate. Nor did it say what law enforcement agency it was sending the information to.
The board’s meeting in Albany came two days after the incumbent, Assemblyman Ron Kim, won the primary in a district east of La Guardia Airport and Citi Field that he has represented since 2013.
In early June, Yin declined to discuss how the names and signatures of so many fake donors had ended up on his disclosure reports but acknowledged that his campaign might have made mistakes. Later, in a statement sent to Chinese language news outlets, his campaign declared with “unwavering confidence” that it had “adhered to all the necessary procedures to meet matching fund requirements.”
But the details of how Yin spent the matching funds remain unclear. He filed a report with the board in early June that said he had $93,168 on hand. Another report, covering campaign expenses for the final two weeks before the primary, is due on July 15.
New Jersey reviews liquor licenses for 2 Trump golf clubs
Two of former President Donald Trump’s golf properties in New Jersey will have to convince state regulators that their liquor licenses should be renewed now that he is a felon.
The guilty verdict raises “concerns as to whether this licensee remains qualified to hold said license,” Kirstin Krueger, interim director of the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said in a letter to Donald Trump Jr., the executive vice president of the Trump Organization. Under New Jersey law, the state will not grant liquor licenses to “any person who has been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude.”
The liquor licenses for the two golf properties — Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster and Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck — run for one year and expired yesterday. The two clubs will be allowed to serve drinks until July 19, when a hearing on the licenses will be held in Trenton. That is eight days after Trump is set to be sentenced in Manhattan on 34 felony counts.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
METROPOLITAN diary
Chopped cheese
Dear Diary:
I was on my way to a Jackson Hewitt tax office in the Bronx on a Monday night. I stopped at a Bengali place for dinner. I left with two samosas, plus dinner and lunch for the next day.
It was 9 p.m. when I got to the subway station. I looked around and noticed a boy on the platform. He was playing a video game.
I opened the container with the samosas, but before I could dip one in sauce the boy interrupted me.
Excuse me, Miss, he said. Do you have a dollar for water? I’m thirsty.
I put my food away.
Let’s go, I said.
We went downstairs.
Are you hungry? I asked him.
Yes, he said.
We walked to a Jamaican restaurant on the corner known for its jerk chicken, bread fruit and steamed fish.
Please, Miss, the boy asked, can we go to a deli?
We found one nearby. He ordered a chopped cheese and an Arizona iced tea. I paid, and we ran back up to the station.
The train pulled in immediately. We got on, and the boy took out the sandwich. I listened as he talked about wanting to be a doctor and ate his chopped cheese.
Stay focused, I began to say. Before I could say more, he hugged me and said good night.
