Memo Lays Out Fundraising Rules for De Blasio Effort to Aid Senate Democratic Candidates

An October 2014 memorandum from a campaign finance attorney Laurence Laufer to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s top political aides, explains how the de Blasio team could legally steer donations to their favored candidates through county party committees, without engaging in “earmarking,” which is prohibited under Election Law § 14-120.

The memo explains:

“There is no provision of the Election Law that would preclude a campaign consultant or volunteer from both raising funds and providing advice to the funds-recipient regarding the optimal campaign use of the funds raised. I daresay this happens in every political campaign. The only caveats are (i) the fundraiser/consultant/volunteer should not convey any direction from the contributor to the county committee regarding the use of that contributor’s contribution, and (ii) the person providing advice to the county committee should not be an agent of the contributor.”

In a nutshell, the memo advises that so long as a contributor does not give the fundraisers (the Mayor’s political advisors) specific instructions as to how their contribution should be spent, then the fundraisers are not prohibited from advising county committee leaders as to where they would like to see such donations spent.

Read news coverage of this story from the Times Union and Politico NY.

Read Mr. Laufer’s memo here.