The Bronx Democratic Party reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously undisclosed donations on Friday following reporting from New York Focus that found the group had failed to disclose dozens of political contributions — a violation of state law.
A political action committee dedicated to electing Democrats to the state Assembly donated nearly $700,000 to the Bronx party, according to the new disclosures. The honorary chair of the committee is Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who represents part of the Bronx and is one of the most powerful figures in state politics.
State Senator and Bronx Democratic Party head Jamaal Bailey told New York Focus that the omission was due to “inaccurate record keeping.” He said that the party would improve its practices going forward.
“There’s no impropriety. There’s nothing wrong. We simply didn’t file when we were supposed to,” Bailey said.
The disclosure failure first came to New York Focus’s notice because the PAC — the New York State Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee — had reported sending more than $400,000 to the Bronx in 24 installments, but the Bronx party had never reported receiving the cash.
The new disclosures revealed the PAC was not the only undisclosed source of funds. The Bronx party also received five-figure contributions from sources like the New York Yankees and the industry lobbying group Phrma, as noted by Politico.
Since April of 2020, the Democratic Assembly PAC has sent
over $690,000 to the Bronx party. But for the 20 years prior (as far
back as the public data goes), there are no records of the PAC donating
to the Bronx.
Bailey said that money has been used for “party building”
in the Bronx. Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz, who chairs the Assembly
PAC and also represents the Bronx, has echoed that justification.
Neither Bailey nor Dinowitz offered a reason for why the transfers began in 2020.
Why hundreds of thousands of dollars are required for
Democratic party building in a county where Democrats outnumber
Republicans by more than ten-to-one is unclear. The Assembly PAC,
chaired by Dinowitz and Heastie, did not give substantial amounts of
money to any other county-based Democratic party in the last five years.
It also didn’t financially support Democratic
Assemblymember Steven Englebright, who was defeated by a Republican in
the 2022 election cycle, despite Englebright requesting help, he
previously told New York Focus.
Bailey denied that the Bronx donations deprived other candidates.
“The Bronx got resources, and other places got resources, as well,” Bailey said.
Dinowitz did not respond to a request for comment on why
the Assembly PAC sent over half a million dollars to the Bronx. He told
New York Focus last week that despite being the chair of the PAC, he
wasn’t aware that they’d sent money to the Bronx.
“I’m not the person who signs checks. I’m not the treasurer, or anything like that,” he said at the time.
The Democratic Assembly PAC and its executive director, David Waterman, have not responded to multiple contact attempts.
Since New York Focus reported on the undisclosed funds, Bronx Democrats have submitted over a dozen new or amended filings to the state Board of Elections covering 2020 through 2024. The party filed multiple reports that had previously been entirely absent from public records, and disclosed expenses that had been missing from previous reports.
The state chief of election law enforcement, Michael Johnson, did not respond to questions from New York Focus asking whether he plans to investigate the years-late disclosures.