Monday, September 14, 2009

Developers give big $$$ to these guys

From Gotham Gazette:

Wielding the city's most lucrative resource -- land -- developers have long used their purse strings to try to influence City Hall. And this year is no different.

The most viable citywide candidates have collected more than $2.5 million from real estate interests for the 2009 election, according to an analysis by Gotham Gazette. None have collected more than comptroller candidate and Land Use Committee Chair Melinda Katz, who took in more than 30 percent of that figure. Thompson and public advocate candidate and Councilmember Eric Gioia have also pulled in considerable sums, at $393,000 and $314,807, respectively.

At the same time, some of the city's most well known or active developers have increased their donations by more than 30 percent since 2001 -- and we haven't even passed the primary.

1 comment:

Jerry Rotondi said...

I had once confronted Melinda Katz at a Queens borough hall public hearing that was chaired by Jessica Lapin regarding her numerous developers' campaign contributions during my allotted speaking time.

Holding up a 3 ring binder full of her contributors names that I had printed out from the Campaign Finance Board's website, I noted her to be "the poster child for...and a courtesan of NYC's real estate and building industry".

She owes the developers a heap of favors for all that money she took!

What kind of service do you expect she will she give us as comptroller?