[NYPOST] Less than a week ago, Mayor de Blasio was offering aid to Ecuadorians after the earthquake there. Now a political earthquake is rocking City Hall and the mayor is the one who needs help.
The report from the state Board of Elections that accuses him and his team of "willful and flagrant" violations of campaign-finance laws immediately changes everything.
The veneer of business as usual is shredded. Never again can de Blasio wave off questions about the mushrooming investigations of his administration. As revelations pile up day after day, allies will desert him and the Putz will find himself a very lonely man.
There is no way to sugarcoat the facts: de Blasio is in trouble. Maybe very big trouble.
His City Hall is being depicted as the seat of a criminal enterprise. And so far, he offers nothing resembling a convincing denial.
As bad as it is, the election report covering the 2014 state Senate races is just the start. The endgame involves the more lethal issue of whether de Blasio sold government favors to donors. That is what federal prosecutors are looking for, and I believe they will find a mother lode.
Yet if the election report were all there is, it would still be a problem. It calls one of the campaign violations a possible felony and refers its findings to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. for prosecution. That explains why Vance recently partnered up with US Attorney Preet Bharara in the multipronged probe, effectively doubling the number of prosecutors and Sherlocks.
And that gets to the heart of de Blasio’s vulnerability. His 2014 Senate effort wasn’t unique. It is just one example of how he has done business since the day he won the election in 2013.
Think of it as de Blasio’s Big Idea. While denouncing income inequality, he was determined to harvest big bucks from unions and private firms that had business before the city, and then to use that money to carry out his "progressive agenda."
He raised as much as $40 million and deposited it in various slush funds he formed, including the Campaign for One New York, which he started before he even took the oath of office.
The money would be managed by a small team of insiders. Some were on the city payroll, but most were in favored law firms, public relations and consultant shops. In effect, de Blasio outsourced a permanent political operation to be the vanguard of his administration.
If that sounds familiar, it's because it is...
The money would come from real-estate developers, yellow-taxi medallion owners, teachers unions and anybody else willing to play ball in hopes the mayor would return the favors.
Oh, and one more thing: de Blasio would do much of the fund-raising himself, meeting with donors in large groups or one-on-one.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
*Yawn* Wake me when he's wearing an orange jump suit...
#2
He raised as much as $40 million and deposited it in various slush funds he formed, including the Campaign for One New York, which he started before he even took the oath of office.
Failing to use legitimate structures such as the cover for actionClinton Foundation obviously has it's downside. Simply an example mind you, simply an example.
[THEHILL] Maine Gov. Paul LePage, a Donald Trump supporter,
Not an unbiased observer, then...
accused the Ted Cruz presidential campaign of reneging on a deal to support a "unity slate" of the state’s primary delegates, according to CNN.
"We reached a deal with Cruz's national campaign to put up a unity slate that would honor the wishes of the thousands of Mainers who voted at caucus," LePage said in a statement. "But Cruz's Northeast Political Director David Sawyer lied to us and broke the deal. Sawyer stabbed us in the back, reneged on the unity slate, and betrayed the people of Maine."
The Maine governor suggested the incident was part of a larger trend of deceit from the Cruz team.
"As we have seen throughout the country, Cruz's national campaign is run by greedy political hooligans," he said.
"I can't stand by and watch as Cruz and the Republican Establishment forcibly overrule the votes of Mainers who chose Trump and Kasich. I call on Senator Cruz to condemn Sawyer's disrespectful and dishonest tactics in Maine."
In Maine's GOP presidential caucus on March 5, Cruz came out on top with about 46 percent of the vote. He was allocated 12 delegates, leaving nine for Trump, now the Republican front-runner, and and two for rival John Kasich. The state's convention is underway this weekend to decide which delegates will head to the Republican National Convention in July.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/25/2016 00:00 ||
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I've despaired of having anyone take my bet that Cruz will switch from Conservatism to Compassionate Conservatism the moment he crosses WH threshold.
#3
you're not looking very hard if thats the case. I'd take that bet. Cruz didnt wimp out in the senate, which is why the wimps in the senate hate him.
Also, the whole LePage story fo "backstab" has been shown to be a lie. Like most Trumpkins, he has an issue with making assumptions, and playing very fast and loose with facts.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYPOST] Less than a week ago, Mayor de Blasio was offering aid to Ecuadorians after the earthquake there. Now a political earthquake is rocking City Hall and the mayor is the one who needs help.
