Billionaires don't want Eric Adams to go to prison

 

 

  Politico

 

Mayor Eric Adams has already spent more than $400,000 on legal costs for a federal investigation involving his 2021 campaign. The expense was revealed Tuesday, in the first disclosure of a fund he established to allow him to fundraise to pay off the bills.

Meanwhile a 2025 campaign filing also released Tuesday night shows Adams’ reelection bid doled out more than $181,000 over the course of six-and-a-half months to his former fundraiser, whose Brooklyn home was raided by FBI agents in November as part of the probe.

A campaign spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the unusually high payment to Brianna Suggs.

Adams still has almost $300,000 left in his Legal Defense Fund and plans to continue seeking contributions, a representative for the trust told POLITICO.

The bulk of his legal defense spending —$397,000 — went to WilmerHale, the white shoe firm employing Adams’ lawyers Boyd Johnson and Brendan McGuire. McGuire worked as Adams’ chief counsel in City Hall before resigning last summer.

A smaller payment of about $6,000 went to the firm Haystack for “forensic data collection” — a hire by the legal team to review electronic records, explained the representative, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

Adams’ campaign compliance attorney, Vito Pitta, serves as counsel for the trust and his firm was paid $7,500 for its work to date. Artus Group, a firm of private detectives, was paid $18,664 to vet would-be donors.

The trust is overseen by the city Conflicts of Interest Board and must adhere to strict limits on who can give: City employees, lobbyists and their family members, among others, are prohibited from donating.

The trust reported raising more than $732,000 in eight weeks from about 223 individual donors, about half giving the maximum allowable donation of $5,000.

Contributors include Alexander Rovt, a billionaire businessperson who’s been accused of running a “fiefdom” through his board chair position in a Brooklyn health care system. Two of Rovt’s family members, Olga and Maxwell, also gave $5,000 each.

Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, a steadfast ally of the mayor who’s regularly seen by his side at official events, gave $2,500. She appeared to be the only elected official to donate.

Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg donated, as POLITICO first reported ahead of the filing. “Mike thinks it’s in the city’s interest for Mayor Adams to succeed, and it’s not in the city’s interest for him to be distracted,” longtime Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson said.

Other billionaires who gave include cryptocurrency investor Brock Pierce and Russian-tied businessperson Leonard Blavatnik, the Daily News first reported.

Frank Carone, Adams’ former chief of staff who now runs a consulting firm, gave $5,000, as did three members of his family. People with business before the city aren’t allowed to contribute, but Carone — who remains close to the mayor — is not a registered lobbyist.

Jeni from the block holds fundraiser in Manhattan with the Mayor

 

 City And State

Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar threw a fundraiser at midtown Manhattan’s Hunt & Fish Club last night, asking attendants to donate $3,000 for a night of open bar, food and access to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Aside from the mayor’s appearance and remarks, the event at the Times Square venue drew other well-known Rajkumar supporters, including Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the nonprofit Partnership for New York City. “Jenifer is very thoughtful. She’s very consultative. She represents a very diverse community and does it in a way that’s very balanced, where she pays attention to the concerns of business, residents and puts that all together. Jenifer is a terrific asset in the Assembly.”

Rajkumar, in her signature red dress, struck a pose as she addressed a crowd of supporters at the exclusive Midtown club. She credited Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech for inspiring her commitment to making a difference as a politician.

“I’m going to change it,” she said of the Roosevelt speech from 1910. “I’m going to change it and I’m going to call it, ‘The Woman in the Arena.’ And it is not the critics that count. Not the man who points out how the strong woman stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. It belongs to the woman who is actually in the arena.”

Adams also spoke, throwing his support behind the candidate who made history as the first Indian American woman elected to state office. Rajkumar appeared on stage with Adams and proclaimed herself the first politician out of Queens to endorse the mayor for his 2025 reelection bid.

The mayor posed for several photos with supporters, asking at one point to make sure Rajkumar was included. He left shortly after the pair made remarks on stage, giving Rajkumar a warm hug and kiss on the cheek. City & State caught up with the mayor as he got into his Chevy Suburban outside on West 44th Street, a commercial strip known for its busy nightlife scene. The mayor was asked about his thoughts after Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address on Tuesday, a speech that hinted at little progress in solving the migrant crisis and other issues impacting the city.

“Without a doubt. I’ve been talking cannabis initiatives, I’ve been talking about housing initiatives, I’ve been talking about what we’re going to do about moving forward with so many other agendas, (from) the environment to all those things I’ve been talking about, which is really exciting,” he said as he entered the SUV, a rack of designer and tailored suits visible inside.

 So the governor is still not going to help us with the migrant dystopia. Thanks Kathy Clown.

 

Queens Borough President for sale

 

Running an office that has no real function or reason to exist doesn't come cheap. For a guy who likes to drop the word equity every minute, these prices doesn't indicate any presence of the average working class Queens resident at this gala.

Ooh don't forget that the working class residents of Queens will still be donating money anyway because of the easy to manipulate matching funds law.

 

Mayor Party Hardy Means Tardy

 

Hellgate NYC

Ten hours after the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning, five hours after the heavy rain began to fall across New York City, three hours after social media platforms began to be deluged with photos and videos of floodwaters stranding vehicles and commuters, 90 minutes after the MTA essentially told riders the trains were all too broken to be of any use, and 40 minutes after the press conference was supposed to start, Mayor Eric Adams spoke to New Yorkers for the first time about the flooding that continues to pummel the city that is under his control.

"We're ready, and you should be as well, to be prepared for this moment," Adams said.

What took him so long?

The mayor—flanked by a coffee mug and a tall paper cup, his voice sounding markedly more craggy and halting than usual (Adams had a "birthday fundraiser" in Inwood on Thursday night)—told reporters that he didn't need to be the first official to address New Yorkers about the flooding, because his deputies had already done so, in the form of sending out some Notify NYC alerts, appearing on 1010 WINS and Fox Weather on Thursday, and forwarding a press release to reporters at 11:08 p.m. on Thursday night. (Some of those deputies, including Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy, who earns an annual salary of $250,000, went even further, and snippily alerted reporters to all the alerting that had previously occurred.)

"Leadership is not only the mayor," Adams said. "It is all of those that are placed in those positions, and that is what you saw."

At the start of the presser, Adams said that he "got a firsthand look at the impact of the rainfall and what it is doing moving around the city," but later revealed that this was a little bit of serendipitous multitasking. On Friday morning, he had actually gone to a wake for a retired NYPD officer, and had driven back home through East New York, Canarsie, and Sheepshead Bay. 

Just six families had been successfully evacuated from flooded basement homes so far, according to Levy, but with two to four more inches of rain on the way, where could New Yorkers who live in basements go if their homes flooded? Where was the "higher ground" that NotifyNYC told basement apartment-dwellers to seek? The mayor didn't say, though he assured everyone that was being taken care of.

"We will have sites for those who can't go with family and friends, we will always provide shelter for those in need and we will navigate that," Adams said.

Zach Iscol, head of the mayor's Emergency Management division, assured New Yorkers they were "monitoring continuously," and "in very active response mode right now," but the evidence provided for that was simply more assurances.

"We're taking this extremely, extremely seriously," Iscol said.

For an event featuring the mayor, Governor Kathy Hochul, the head of the MTA Janno Lieber, and many leaders of City agencies, not a whole lot was revealed at this press conference. Despite the chaos on the street, everyone had convened to convince New Yorkers they were doing their jobs, and that the system is working, more or less. After the mayor thanked the governor, the governor thanked the mayor. "Mayor, you've been fantastic," Hochul said.

What about migrants staying in tent structures? No major leaks or flooding have been reported, Levy said.

 

Kathy Clown's hiring of Contractor Gadget Jr. has got herself in hot water

NY Post 

The son of a major Kathy Hochul donor was hired by her campaign right around the time his father hosted a fundraiser for the Democratic governor — and just weeks before the dad’s company scored what’s being called a “pay-to-play” deal to sell the state $637 million in overpriced COVID-19 tests.

James Tebele, 21, has a resume that starts with a 2016 summer internship at his dad Charlie’s New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets consumer technology company, which pivoted to selling masks, gowns, sanitizer, thermometers and at-home rapid tests during the pandemic.

Now a student at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, James Tebele began working for Hochul’s campaign as a finance intern in November — and appears to have risen up the ranks, or at least pay scale, of her campaign as his dad’s fundraising for the governor increased.

On Nov. 22, Charlie Tebele — whose family has donated over $300,000 to Hochul — spent $5,150 on food, decorations and servers for a Hochul fundraiser and his wife, Nancy Tebele, also donated $18,000 to the governor’s campaign that day, the Albany Times Union first reported earlier this month.

Just four days later, Hochul suspended competitive-bidding rules for the state’s purchase of COVID-19 supplies, leading to the first of two contracts awarded to Digital Gadgets for a total of 26 million test kits.

Despite the rapid confluence of events, and her campaign’s hiring of James Tebele, Hochul has maintained that she “was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me” — an assertion rejected and ridiculed by her critics.

“The governor attended an in-person fundraiser hosted by the donor and hired one of his family members, but claims she was unaware of any connection. It’s laughable,” Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R-Fulton) said Wednesday.

The first contract — inked on Dec. 20 — charged taxpayers $13 per test, even though Hochul’s administration had recently struck a deal to buy similar tests from another supplier for just $5 each, according to the Times Union.

Digital Gadgets charged the state an average of $12.25 per test — costing taxpayers a total of $268 million more than if officials bought the “Carestart” tests directly from the manufacturer instead of using Charlie Tebele as a middleman, the Times Union said.

 NY Post

This is not the kind of national attention most governors seek.

Congressional Republicans are vowing to probe a $637 million alleged pay-to-play scheme involving Gov. Kathy Hochul and a deep-pocketed campaign donor if they retake the House of Representatives this November.

“As a taxpayer, it really pisses me off that my governor is paying twice as much for a product that other states are and that the money is going to one of her large donors,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island-Brooklyn) told The Post Thursday.

“It smells so bad,” she added.

The vow comes amid growing calls for local, state and federal officials — who have remained silent about whether they will investigate — to probe how $300,000 in campaign cash to Hochul might have helped the New Jersey-based Digital Gadgets land the no-bid contract for 52 million COVID rapid tests, a deal first revealed by the Times Union this summer.

“With your duty to enforce federal laws and ensure fair and impartial administration of justice, we ask that you use your position within the Department of Justice to promote transparency in government spending and investigate this potential kickback scheme that has defrauded taxpayers millions of dollars,” reads a Sept. 26 letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland from GOP members of Congress including Malliotakis and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-North Country).

 

Pay to play Emily Gallagher's game

@EmilyAssembly campaigning and doing a book informercial while working for taxpayers

And wouldn't you know it, trivia contest is rigged for urbanish bike zealots to win and you literally have to pay to play it. Surely this won't influence any policy decisions, how de Blasioesque pic.twitter.com/MTExHa7bwU

— JQ LLC: I'm creeping death (@ImpunityCity) January 13, 2022

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!

From the NY Post:

Monday’s poolside fundraiser took place at the home of developer Carl Mattone and was co-hosted by Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), lobbyist William Driscoll and architect Gerry Caliendo.

This is bad. Queens is gonna get f*cked royally.

 JQ LLC here; the DSA is not running a candidate for mayor, but Adams did clarify and also revealed what votes and donor lucre he is pandering for to beat "Eric Sliwa" and it's the same real estate and corporate oligarchs who mobilized super pacs to counter and cripple DSA candidates that were running for council seats. 

 Adams is such a narcissist, I bet he mistakes everyone's names for "Eric"

For the love of Dave: Entertainerpreneur soliciting funds for lesbian bar

  

Time Out

Queens has exactly zero lesbian bars, and one local lesbian is trying to change that.

Kristin Dausch, a performer, nanny and aspiring entrepreneur who has lived in Astoria for over 12 years wanted to bring a lesbian bar to her neighborhood: Dave's Lesbian Bar. After running a local predominantly queer open mic for over year years, and seeing how the community came together for the event, Dausch thought to herself, "Oh wow, this would be great if I could do this every day." Prior to the pandemic, Dausch had Broadway aspirations, but once the idea for Dave's struck earlier this year, they wanted to see if they could get community support to make it happen. 

 "Since I've put it out in the world, I've received nothing but green lights, a hard and fast, 'Yes, we need this,'" Dausch said. They very much want Dave's to be in the neighborhood they lived in for over a decade, "built by the community, for the community." In June, Dausch launched a GoFundMe, seeking $70,000 to open Dave's. So far, the project has raised almost $6000, with several people offering support with social media, video editing and more skills to help open Dave's. 

"Whatever your strengths are, if you want to lend them to this space, they're welcome," Dausch said. "If everybody gives a little bit, and I give everything I've got, which is a whole lot, we're going to make this thing happen." They envision Dave's as a queer-centric mutual aid hub by day, and lesbian bar by night. The space can be used for a community fridge, a drop-off site for the Astoria Food Pantry, a free store, a queer rolling library, and more. "We're investing in community instead of this individualistic mindset," Dausch said, noting the pandemic's mutual aid efforts inspired the vision for Dave's. 

Astoria isn't completely without queer venues: Icon, a club, hosts parties, while Albatross, which was formerly a lesbian bar, offers a divey space perfect for group hangs and drag shows. But with only two lesbian bars remaining in New York City, both in Manhattan (Cubbyhole and Henrietta Hudson), Dave's will certainly fill a void. 

Dave's first pop-up will be on Saturday, July 24, starting at 2pm and raging as late as possible. The bar will be outdoors, thanks to an open street permit, adjacent to Heart of Gold, a casual beer bar at 31st Ave. and 37th St. in Astoria. The first event will feature queer haircuts by Hairrari, live music by seven "dyke-led" bands, a tattooing station and more. Dyke Beer will be served, along with more drinks for sale. A suggested donation will also be requested at the door. The business will be doing pop-ups monthly until a full-time space is secured.

All is forgiven Andrew

 

 NY Post

 What scandals?

Labor bosses and corporate CEOs showed their support for three-term Gov. Andrew Cuomo at a pricey campaign fundraiser Tuesday night despite ongoing investigations over sexual harassment accusations and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The minimum $10,000 per head and $15,000 per couple event was held at 75 Rockefeller Plaza, a building managed by the RXR Realty, a firm headed by Cuomo pal Scott Rechler. It attracted more than 170 people, a source familiar with the Cuomo re-election campaign said.

Rechler served as a Cuomo appointee to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, whose projects include Hudson Yards, also made an appearance at Cuomo’s first major in-person fundraiser since ending emergency edicts over the coronavirus pandemic.

Equally important for Cuomo was the appearance of some of New York’s most influential labor leaders.

George Gresham, president of the powerful health care workers union — SEIU Local 1199 — introduced Cuomo ahead of his 20 minute speech, a source said.

Other Big Labor attendees included Mario Cilento, president of the NYS AFL-CIO;; Gary LaBarbara, head of the New York Building and Trades Council; SEIU Local 32 BJ president Kyle Bragg; Stuart Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, and Dennis Trainor and Robert Masters of the Communication Workers of America, among others.

Also spotted heading into or leaving the fundraiser were public relations maven Ken Sunshine and lobbyist Charlie King, a longtime Cuomo confidante. King ran as Cuomo’s running mate during his failed 2002 bid for governor and served as executive director of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

Other lobbyists and lawyers appeared — including Robert Harding and others associated with Greenberg & Traurig. Harding, whose late father, Ray Harding, once headed the state Liberal Party, served as a deputy mayor for Rudy Giuliani.

 City Democratic leaders waved the Cuomo flag: attendees included Brooklyn Democratic Party chairwoman and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, Manhattan Democratic leader Keith Wright, Staten Island Democratic leader and Assemblyman Michael Cusick, and Queens Democratic Party executive director Michal Reich.

The support for Cuomo clashes with many elected Democrats who called for Cuomo to resign over the sexual harassment claims — among them US Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Cuomo is holding virtue vanity birthday party fundraiser with celebrity cameos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's pretty warped and brazenly unethical to be raising money for yourself as small businesses and their employees will lose money because of a lockdown mandate based on very dubious indicators.

What is the tyrant's I mean Governor's idea of a "Young Professional Slash Activist" and what makes him think this individual has fifty dollars to spare?

Sit on it, Andrew.

 

Eric Adams held donor/vector fundraiser dinner at a restaurant in South Richmond Hill

 

NY Daily News 

 Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams held an in-person fundraiser for his mayoral campaign at a club located inside a COVID “yellow zone” in Queens on Saturday.

“I thank you, brother Ross, for opening this amazing place, this beautiful place ... allowing us to come in and to host this event,” he said inside Ross Code Lounge in the South Richmond Hill neighborhood.

“This is going to be my hangout, a safe, comfortable place where people can come and enjoy themselves,” he added.

The club’s 117-15 101st Ave. address is located inside one of the areas determined by the state to be a COVID “yellow zone,” according to an online map of the zones.

Restrictions in such zones include a 25-person limit on “mass gatherings.” Asked Sunday how many people attended the fundraiser, Adams’s campaign said there were eight people, adding that they were required to wear masks and practice social distancing. 

Including Adams and his muscle and the photographer in the pic there, there are 3 people over the limit.

Asked why Adams was holding in-person fundraisers during the pandemic, his campaign spokesman Evan Thies said in a phone call, “My question to you is, why not do that? … Who is saying that we should not be doing that besides you?

“It’s been a pandemic now for eight months and people have been doing in-person events all across the city every night,” he added.

In an email statement, Thies said, “Eric strongly agrees with New York State’s science-based approach to the coronavirus, and the campaign will continue to follow the law and best health and safety practices.

“As a former dishwasher, Eric knows how important it is to the families of working people to support our small businesses while the State still deems it safe to do so,” Thies added.

The event was billed online as a “meet & greet fundraiser” with a “maximum contribution” listed as $2,000.

“We’ve out-raised the whole field,” he crowed. “Nobody has more money.”

 Yeah, Adams is going to be great mayor of the people. Four more years of defiant entitlement and hypocrisy and surely incompetence as the donor class continues to dominate policy and civic services distribution.

 

 

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has to fire her chief of staff

 

George The Atheist

 Just Who Represents The Queens 14th CD?

Who?  Officially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

So why is her Chief-of-Staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, mouthing off for her?  Referring to moderate members of Democratic groups in a Tweet last month as "New Southern Democrats" who are "hell bent to do black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s."   He sure p.o.'d Pelosi and many of the old school Dems, no?

Who elected this guy Chakrabarti? Seemingly the puppet-master of Ocasio?   AOC's string-puller?  And he doesn't even live in Queens but is a carpetbagger from Greenwich Village in Manhattan!!!

Impunity City

 A few weeks ago on the heels of the congressional hearings of the Senate's border funding bill, a brash man in his 30's  decided to take to social media and rail against the establishment very old guard and "moderate" Democrats for their support of it. And the social media storm came from the chief of staff of the most pop-centric elected official of our time (and arguably maybe all time since the young Kennedys) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Saikat Chakrabarti. Although he made salient points about the congressional hacks constant cave-ins, he made a boneheaded analogy comparing Speaker Pelosi and the other Dems voting for it to the Dixiecrats of nearly a century ago, which he immediately deleted. 


Even though these are atypical reactions from an electorate body of officials that are cognizant of their weakening status in office and of the growing and widening disdain of them by their constituencies to undermine a young and immensely popular upstart like Ocasio-Cortez, their vindictive accusations of her being dependent on her obnoxious chief of staff does have merit.

But in actuality, it's not only because of his tweet conflating the current shitty Congress and the shitty racist enabling one back in the day or even wearing a very stupid t-shirt, it's mostly because he's a dishonest person and a multi-millionaire feigning to be a revolutionary, trying to become a player in D.C.. He also could have underhanded reasons to personally profit from what on the surface are progressive policies that are being pushed.

Chakrabarti, or Chak as he will be referred to here for the sake of brevity and it sounds better, got filthy rich in Silicon Valley developing a web tool called Mockingbird and participated in Bernie Sanders miraculous yet defeated presidential campaign, followed by hooking up with the current representative of New York's fighting fourteenth district in Northeast Queens and the South Bronx with the Justice Democrats PAC he co-formed.

But since that victory, he's been pulling some very shady and non-progressive stunts

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez integrated an environmental awareness event with a campaign fundraiser

NY Post


Her new deal is all about the green, alright.
 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a 5k in Queens Saturday that she billed as “a Family Fun Run supporting U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal on the Saturday following Earth Day.”
 
But many of the 400 runners didn’t realize their $30 registration fees were going directly into the lawmaker’s campaign coffers.
 
“We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together,” the freshman Democrat told the participants before they set off.
Environmentally conscious supporters — who jogged through Astoria Park alongside a beaming, strolling AOC — believed their money was going to help save the planet.
 
“It’s going to help raise awareness and educate people,” a female runner told The Post.
 
“I think it’s really for this particular New Green Deal,” said Brian Schwartz of Long Island. “No question.”
 
“It’s to help the environment. To support the Green New Deal,” another woman said. “It’s a good cause.”
 
A vaguely worded notices on AOC’s Facebook page — saying that the run would support “U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & the Green New Deal” — worsened the confusion.
But the fine print on a third event-related website revealed the truth.
 
“Registration fees are contributions to AOC for Congress,” reads the legal disclosure on aoc5k.com, which lists the Federal Election Commission rules that donors must follow.
 
“It was a campaign fundraiser,” Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent confirmed.
 
The participants paid more than $11,000 all told.
 
Even kids as young as 3 became unknowing political donors — ponying up $20 fees to join a kids’ 1k.

 But by fudging the fact that those fees were actually campaign contributions, AOC may have enticed constituents into inadvertently breaking federal election laws.
 
Parents, for example, can’t contribute their own funds in a child’s name.

 Then there's this:

 Anthony Pappas, the 72-year-old Republican who ran against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in November, shadowed the freshman Democrat at an Astoria Park event Saturday – and had to be shooed away by cops when he got too close.
 
Pappas, a professor at St. John’s University, was distributing stapled copies of an eight-page manifesto about his grievances against the judicial system, including complaints about unfair sentencing and a lack of accountability for judges, and ranting to passersby.
 
Staffers blocked him from approaching Ocasio-Cortez as she took selfies with supporters at the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 5k “fun run.”
 
“I wanted to tell her about judicial immunity and judicial accountability,” Pappas told The Post, after two police officers guided him away from AOC and her group. She did not seem to acknowledge him.

All of this is extremely bad. Ocasio-Cortez is going to be a one-termer if she keeps up this elitist behavior. (That clip where she is walking with a baby looks like something out of VEEP). And the NYPD's treatment of the professor really shows how stupid and arbitrary the lengths to protect politicians from alleged threats on their lives are.

Her staff should especially know better too. Mr. Pappas is a constituent who the congresswoman represents in her district.

D.A. candidate Katz holds campaign fundraiser at mob connected restaurant

 

NY Post

Aren’t these the guys she’s supposed to be putting away?

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz boosted her campaign for district attorney by holding a fund-raiser at a mobbed-up eatery in Rego Park, The Post has learned.

Sources said Katz partied with supporters Tuesday night at the Barosa Italian restaurant, which is co-owned by reputed Genovese associate Frank Barbone.

Barbone, 47, has twice been convicted in illegal-gambling cases, including one in Queens for which he served a 1 ¹/₂ to 4 ¹/₂- year prison term.

He’s currently on supervised release in the other — in which he admitted to a Manhattan federal judge that gangsters might drop by his place from time to time.

Barone was present at the restaurant during Katz’s fund-raiser, for which tickets cost $150 each, sources said.

“Shouldn’t she know where the owner is a mobster?” a source wondered.

In 2016, Barbone was among 46 reputed gangsters busted in what the feds called a “sprawling and long-running racketeering conspiracy” that involved four of New York’s “Five Families,” as well as the Philly mob run by Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.

Prosecutors said Barbone ran an illegal sports-gambling operation with reputed Genovese member Alex Conigliaro, with whom he was also convicted in 2000 on state gambling charges.
 
In 2017, Barbone struck a plea bargain that got him a one-day, time-served jail sentence, and three years supervised release.

 Katz campaign spokesman Grant Fox said: “It’s surprising that Melinda’s opponents, who are tripping over themselves claiming to be reformers, are floating this kind of half-baked opposition research to hurt someone who paid his debt to society and now runs a popular restaurant that has hosted events for candidates on both sides of the aisle.”

Lobbyist Joe Crowley is holding a St. Patrick's Day fundraiser.

NY Post


Joe Crowley, the ex-congressman and former Queens Democratic leader who just landed a job at a powerhouse DC lobbying firm, is holding a St. Patrick’s Day campaign fundraiser March 9 as if he’s running for another office.

After losing in a stunning upset to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in last June’s Democratic primary, Crowley created a new state campaign committee called “Joe for NY.”

The move was a head-scratcher, since Crowley lost to Ocasio-Cortez by 15 points in a Bronx-Queens district that he represented for a decade.

The fundraiser is raising even more eyebrows because Crowley last week stepped down as the longtime Queens Democratic Party chairman after taking a job at the lobbying firm Squire, Patton, Boggs — seeming to remove himself from electoral politics.

Tickets to the March 9 Crowley fundraiser at the Globe Tavern in Sunnyside, Queens, are going for $40 to $250.

Crowley’s family resides in Alexandria, Va., though he has kept a house in Woodside, Queens.

Cozy relationships may have brought shelter to College Point

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) confirmed Thursday that a controversial men’s shelter will open in College Point next year.

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) spoke to Vallone Nov. 14 and notified him that they would be moving forward with the proposed shelter at 127-03 20th Ave.

According to the Vallone, the shelter could come as early as next September.

“Our fears were confirmed that 127-03 20th Avenue has been approved for use as a homeless shelter as early as September 2019,” Vallone said. “David Levitan’s greed sold out all of College Point for profit over the needs of our entire community.”

“This is a site that was deliberately purchased and converted for use as a homeless shelter — a despicable act by one owner who has no regard for the communities he infiltrates. We will continue to fight and stand with College Point,” he added.

Despicable act by one owner?

Yes, it was deliberately purchased and converted for use as a homeless shelter by David Levitan and Steven Berger. So who really sold out College Point since everyone knows what those two are all about? Why, it was none other than Gina Argento of Broadway Stages fame, a close friend of the mayor! Let's not forget that her husband, John Ciafone, has organized at least one fundraiser for Peter Vallone, and has been friends with the Vallone family for decades. Hmmm....

Also note that the sale of the property happened more than a year ago (just before the City Council election), but the transfer didn't happen until well after, in March.

Not to worry, we're sure Vallone and the born-again progressive, John Liu, will be right on top of this one. The voters of northeast Queens are to be applauded for their wise choices at the polls.

How Chirlaine gets away with stuff

From the NY Post:

First lady Chirlane McCray has raised between $13 million and $28 million in donations for a City Hall-aligned nonprofit from people and entities with business before her hubby Mayor de Blasio, The Post found.

The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City raised the cash during McCray’s four-year tenure as chairwoman from big Wall Street banks, developers, lobbyists, nonprofits and others. The Post analyzed donations made between April 2014 and September 2017 found in disclosures filed with the city Conflicts of Interest Board, along with data from the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services.

In January 2014 de Blasio got approval from COIB to appoint his wife chair of the Mayor’s Fund. As chairwoman, McCray is the “lead fund-raiser” for the fund, which was created in 1994 under former Mayor Giuliani to promote City Hall’s agenda.

Conflict of interest rules bar civil servants from fundraising on the city’s behalf from people with business before their agencies unless “firewalls” exist between those officials and decisions that could impact the donors.

But because McCray is an unpaid volunteer and not a city employee, the rule doesn’t apply to her — even though the mayor often calls her his “closest confidante” and “No. 1 adviser.”

As boss of the mayor’s fund, McCray has the freedom to not only fundraise from anyone with business before the city, but discuss the donors or issues and policies impacting them with her husband.

BP race gets another candidate

From Forest Hills Post:

Councilmember Costa Constantinides plans to run for higher office in 2021 and all indications are that it will be for Queens Borough President.

Constantinides held a fundraiser in Astoria last week and the highest donation sought was $3,850. That figure is the maximum allowed for the borough president race and well short of the $4,950 permitted for a citywide office such as mayor or public advocate.

The invitation to the fundraiser reads: “Costa Constantinides A Champion for Queens,” and adds, “I hope I can count on you as we expand upon our legacy and fight for higher office after my current term ends.”

Constantinides is in his final term as a council member and will be forced to vacate his office at the end of 2021. He represents the 22nd District that covers Astoria and parts of Woodside, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights.

Van Bramer running for Queens Borough President

From the Sunnyside Post:

Council member Jimmy Van Bramer has all but announced that he is running for Queens Borough President.

Van Bramer formed the “Van Bramer 2021” committee last week and said that he is limiting contributions up to $3,850. That figure is the maximum allowed for the borough president race and well short of the $4,950 permitted for a citywide office such as mayor or public advocate.

“I’m not declaring for any particular office at this time but I am gearing up and beginning to plan for the future,” Van Bramer said in an interview. “Obviously serving as Queens Borough President would be a great honor.”

Van Bramer said that he will be rolling over $200,000 from his council committee shortly into Van Bramer 2021 and will begin fundraising.

De Blasio speaking to raise dark money

From the NY Post:

Mayor de Blasio will headline a political fundraiser in Iowa without knowing who’s paying up to $2,000 to see him speak or where the cash will go – despite promising to stay away from “dark money.”

“We know there’s a lot that happens in the public process where there’s no disclosure of who the donors are – I don’t go near anything unless there’s full disclosure,” de Blasio said in February 2016.

Yet the mayor will speak at Progress Iowa’s fifth annual holiday fundraiser on Dec. 19 even though the group doesn’t disclose donors or spending. Tickets range from $30 to $2,000 for VIPs and at least 150 are expected.

Progress Iowa won’t have to reveal who’s paying to party with de Blasio or any of its other donors because it’s registered as a shadowy 501-c(4) non-profit.