Over the past three years, nearly every civil court judge in the Bronx has hired a political consulting firm directly tied to the leader of the Bronx Democratic Party.
The pattern raises concerns about a pay-to-play element within Bronx judicial elections — low-profile contests where the county political machine’s muscle can prove decisive.
A New York Focus analysis of campaign disclosures found that political firms London House and Collado Consultants & Company have collected nearly half of the total campaign spending by winning Bronx Civil Court candidates since 2021.
Both firms are run by close allies of state senator and Bronx Democratic Party chair Jamaal Bailey, and the spending trend has emerged since Bailey was elected party chair in the fall of 2020.
Eleven of the 13 candidates who won the Democratic primary
since 2021 hired at least one of the two firms, collectively paying them
over $172,000. Five candidates sent the firms more than half of their
total campaign funds.
The sought-after judgeship at the Bronx Civil Court carries
a $214,000 annual salary and 10-year term. Civil Court judges hear
cases related to housing disputes and debts, and are often appointed to
higher courts, including ones that hear criminal cases.
Why do winning Bronx civil court candidates routinely pay
large sums to consultants close to Bronx Democratic Party leadership?
New York Focus posed that question to Bailey, the consultants, and the
nearly dozen winning Bronx civil court candidates who have retained
those firms, many of whom are now judges.
None responded other than Bailey, who didn’t address the question in his comments.
“Our endorsements are based on a thorough and fair
evaluation by a judicial screening panel composed of representatives
from diverse bar associations and community organizations across the
city. We also value input from our district leaders and members,
ensuring a broad and inclusive perspective in our decision-making,”
Bailey said in a text message.
Assemblymember Landon Dais, who has also paid significant
sums to London House and Collado Consultants, defended the judge
candidates’ spending by highlighting the importance of supporting
minority-owned businesses.
“Who should they hire instead, a white firm from Manhattan?
Or a firm that’s at least local in the Bronx, that understands the
Bronx?” he said.
It’s not clear that there’s much of an electoral need for
candidates to spend large sums in the first place. The Democratic
primary for Civil Court has been canceled in the Bronx each of the past
three years because the number of candidates equaled the number of
vacant positions. That meant that any Democrat who’d made the ballot was
on their way to becoming a judge, without facing a competitive
election.
London House was founded and is run by Jason Laidley, a
longtime friend of Bailey. It has collected nearly $150,000 of the
$172,000. Laidley previously served as Bailey’s campaign manager and
chief of staff.
The New York City Bar Association, which independently evaluates judicial candidates, gave “not approved” ratings to two of the candidates
who paid London House and later became judges, indicating a lack of
“qualifications necessary for the performance of the duties of the
position.” The Bronx Democratic Party’s own screening panel came to the
opposite conclusion and determined those two candidates were
“qualified.”
The judges’ campaign funds aren’t the only way that London House has been cashing in. New York Focus previously reported that hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions were missing from the Bronx Democratic Party’s campaign finance reports, which spurred
a flurry of updates to correct the error. Those new reports revealed
the degree to which the party’s money has flowed to London House.
Under Bailey’s leadership, the Bronx party has paid London House nearly $300,000
since 2021. It’s unclear what the money was used for. Despite New York
Focus’s requests for an explanation, Bailey has said only that the
payments were for “administrative and operational services” and voter
outreach.
The other Bailey-connected firm, Collado Consultants &
Company, collected $25,000 from civil court candidates. The company has
no digital presence but is registered to the same address as Ariana
Collado, the executive director of the Bronx Democratic Party and an
employee of London House. Collado Consulting has worked exclusively with
candidates in the Bronx, and has only been paid by one non-judicial
candidate.
No other advisors to the winning civil court judge campaigns have been paid even a tenth of what London House has made in recent years, and only one candidate who hired London House has lost.
“I’ve been on a tear for a long time about the civil court process, and I think that the natural result of it is nepotism,” said David Siffert, director of research at the NYU Center for Civil Justice, after New York Focus described this pattern to him.
“You can imagine being in the position of a candidate and saying, ‘I want this seat. What makes sense is to hire this firm that maximizes my chances.’”
The process to become a judge in the Bronx is opaque.
Applications for party consideration are reviewed by an “Independent Judicial Screening Panel” consisting of at least seven people from “bar associations and community groups,” which are “solely responsible” for selecting panel members, according to party bylaws.
The party’s website doesn’t identify the community groups or bar associations that make the appointments, or who sits on the screening panel. Even some people within the party are unsure of its membership, and Bailey declined to answer a question about who appoints or sits on it.
The screening panel determines through interviews whether a candidate is qualified or unqualified, then shares its determination with Bailey, who “collaboratively determines” which of the qualified candidates to endorse, in tandem with “community leaders and elected representatives,” according to the party website.
New York Focus could not locate any record of the party or
its leadership publicly announcing their civil court endorsements since
Bailey became chair. Asked for a list of endorsees, Bailey didn’t
answer.
On paper, judicial elections are open to anyone who wants
to run. But party insiders say that across New York City, that’s not
really how the system works.
Instead, Democratic party leaders pick favored candidates who then get the support of the party’s staff and infrastructure.
The Brooklyn and Queens Democratic Parties have received
much attention for their control over judgeship nominations, and in
Manhattan, a small roster of consultants offer the surest path to a
nomination.
“In Manhattan, there are three or four consultants who are
friends with the county leadership, and every candidate for judge pays
one,” said Siffert.
Within New York City’s four heavily Democratic boroughs,
the Democratic nomination all but ensures a victory come November, and
there is an informal queue for would-be judges to get the party nod.
An example: Yadhira Gonzalez-Taylor ran for Bronx civil court in 2021, but did not hire London House. She lost the primary to Verena Powell, one of two winning candidates in the past four years to eschew both London House and Collado Consultants, and Jessica Flores, who sent London House 80 percent of her total spending.
But Gonzalez-Taylor won Bailey’s respect by defending the party’s candidate screening process on Facebook against another candidate who accused the party of rigging the interviews, according to Howard Graubard, Gonzalez-Taylor’s attorney in the 2021 campaign.
“Apparently, Jamaal [Bailey’s] response was, ‘I’m gonna beat that woman this year, but next year, I’m making her a judge,’” Graubard said.
Gonzalez-Taylor ran again in 2022, and was selected as the Democratic nominee. In March and April, she sent London House a total of $7,000 — nearly 40 percent of her total campaign spending.
London House’s Laidley is retained by both the Bronx Democratic Party and many of the candidates who seek to win the party’s endorsement.
At times, those dual roles have been at odds.
“In Manhattan, there are three or four consultants who are
friends with the county leadership, and every candidate for judge pays
one.”
—David Siffert, Director of Research at NYU Center for Civil Justice
In May, a campaign fundraiser was held at party
headquarters for two civil court candidates who had hired London House
and won the support of the Bronx Democrats: Eliezer Rodriguez and Deidra
Moore.
But the third Civil Court candidate the Bronx party
supported in the primary, Dawn Guglielmo, was not mentioned on the event
invitation.
Guglielmo had not retained London House as her campaign
consultant, and the firm was one of the event’s two presenters. (The
other was State Senator Nathalia Fernandez, a London House client.)
By the time of the May fundraiser, it was apparent this
year’s three party-backed candidates would not face competition in the
June Democratic primary. By law, the county board of elections’ deadline
to certify the primary ballot was only a day later. The primary was
canceled.
(Three more candidates were nominated this year after the
primary, following Governor Kathy Hochul signing a law expanding the
number of civil court judges. None of those three raised or spent any
money for their campaigns.)
While they didn’t need to raise funds for a competitive
primary campaign, the fundraiser did help Rodriguez and Moore pay the
consulting fees.
To pay the party-affiliated consulting firms, it helps for judicial candidates to have some degree of independent wealth.
In eight instances since 2021, winning candidates retaining
the firms have loaned or donated at least $5,000 to their own
campaigns. Some gave substantially more: Flores loaned $37,500; Taisha
Chambers, $20,000; and Michele Davila, nearly $16,000.
Carol Malcolm, who won election in 2023, loaned her
campaign $15,000 in March 2023. She then spent more than $13,000 over
the next two months on London House – for services related to a
Democratic primary that was canceled due to a lack of competition.
After becoming the Democratic nominee in June 2023, Malcolm
then spent more than $5,000 on Collado Consultants over the rest of
that year, although in that November’s general election, there were only
two candidates for two vacant Bronx Civil Court seats.
After becoming a Civil Court judge, Malcolm forgave the $15,000 loan she’d made to her campaign.
It’s not only candidates for judgeships who have spent heavily on London House and Collado Consultants. Landon Dais, the state Assemblymember who represents the southwest Bronx, has also directed tens of thousands of dollars to the two firms.
Dais has a debt of gratitude to the Bronx Democrats’ power brokers: he was handpicked by the borough party earlier this year to fill a vacant seat.
His selection was a surprise to some political observers, who had expected the party to tap Yves Filius, a longtime Bronx politico and member of the Bronx party’s leadership team. But Filius withdrew his nomination hours before the party picked Dais, who thanked party chair Jamaal Bailey and several other top Bronx electeds in a statement following his nomination.
“I try to hire people that look like the community I serve.”
—Landon Dais, NYS Bronx Assemblymember
Dais took office on February 14. Less than a month later,
his campaign sent London House a check for $26,550, with the memo line
“campaign consultant.” It was his first significant expense, and more
than half his total fundraising up to that point.
Dais’s campaign has since sent London House another $8,900,
and since March has also sent$1,000 a month to Collado Consultants. The
expenses represent 30 percent of his total fundraising so far.
Dais told New York Focus that London House and Collado
Consultants run his voter turnout and campaign finance operations and
that he prioritized hiring Bronx-based, minority-owned firms.
“I try to hire people that look like the community I
serve,” he said. “When a Black and Latino firm is hired that’s the only
local shop, really, in the Bronx — why is that questioned?”