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Spielberg, Estee Lauder heir among donors in NY governor's race
By
Jon Campbell
Published Oct 8, 2022
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Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By
Jon Campbell
Published Oct 8, 2022
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Billionaires, real estate developers and Hollywood royalty are pumping millions of dollars into the New York governor’s race as it enters the final stretch.
Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign has raised a whopping $45 million since taking office in August and has nearly $11 million on hand heading into the race’s final month, according to state disclosure records filed late Friday.
Her Republican challenger, Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island, has about $4.5 million on hand. But that doesn’t tell the full story: A pair of super PACs, funded largely by more than $4 million from cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, is spending big on anti-Hochul television ads. Lauder’s support has evened spending with Hochul ahead of the Nov. 8 election.
Here’s a look at what the latest campaign filings reveal:
Hochul gets cash from Spielberg, von Furstenbergs and more
The governor has been a relentless fundraiser during her 14 months in office, breaking a number of records along the way. She hasn’t let up in the last three months.
From mid-July to early October, Hochul took in the maximum allowable contribution of about $47,000 from at least 30 different people.
There are some big names on the list, including:
- Famed film director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, both of whom gave the maximum amount.
- Haim Chera, head of retail at Vornado, the real-estate firm helping finance in the Penn Station expansion plan.
- Jeffrey Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner.
- Thomas Secunda, a billionaire and co-founder of Bloomberg LP. Secunda’s wife, Cynthia, also gave the maximum amount.
- Pat Stryker, a billionaire whose grandfather founded the medical tech company Stryker Corp.
Other notable names on Hochul’s donor list are film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg ($25,000) and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg ($20,000), as well as her children Tatiana ($25,000) and Alexander ($20,000).
Director Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, gave the maximum amount allowed to Hochul's campaign..
Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock
Hochul has attended a number of fashion events in New York City during her tenure, and allocated $10 million in state funding for a Fashion Innovation Center that, among other things, is meant to boost the use of New York-made fabrics in the industry.
She also backs the state’s $420 million-a-year tax credit for the film industry.
Hochul has repeatedly said campaign contributions have never had any impact on her administration’s policies. Zeldin doesn’t buy it. He’s criticized of Hochul’s administration for buying more than $600 million in at-home COVID tests from a Hochul donor.
Super PACs spending big on pro-Zeldin, anti-Hochul ads
Zeldin trails Hochul in the polls and faces the difficult task of running as a Republican in deep-blue New York, where Democrats outnumber the GOP by more than two to one. Making things worse, he has significantly trailed Hochul’s massive fundraising haul over the past 14 months.
Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin has received key campaign support from Estee Lauder heir Ronald Lauder.
Ben Von Klemperer/Shutterstock
But he’s gotten a huge boost from the billionaire Ronald Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune.
Lauder has contributed more than $4 million total to a pair of super PACs. More than $3 million of that money has gone to a group dubbed Safe Together NY, which has bought ads knocking Hochul for her record on crime and bail reform and touting Zeldin as the solution.
Lauder is also the largest donor to Save Our State NY, a separate PAC led by New York City Councilman Joe Borelli.
Both of those groups are allowed to raise unlimited funds from donors, but are prohibited by law from coordinating with Zeldin or his campaign. Zeldin is nonetheless aware of the efforts, and there are obvious synergies. “Save Our State,” for example, had been Zeldin’s campaign slogan long before the PAC launched. He’s toured New York in a bus with the phrase emblazoned on it in huge letters.
“There are multiple independent expenditures that are also in the race,” Zeldin told reporters Friday at a press conference in the Bronx. “Together, for the last week and a half, our side has been outspending her.”
New York Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs faulted Zeldin for relying on the outside expenditures, saying voters know little about the agenda of the people funding them.
“Governor Kathy Hochul is in a very strong position, and Lee Zeldin is relying on dark money and outside groups to start to pull from the Trump playbook and try to take this election through this,” Jacobs told reporters Friday.
Some donors play both sides
The latest filings show some donors hedging their bets.
Take Haim Chera, the Vornado executive. He contributed another $47,700 to Hochul’s campaign after previously contributing more than $20,000. (The maximum allowable contribution for the general and primary elections combined was about $69,000.)
But Zeldin’s disclosures also list Chera as having contributed $30,000 in “in-kind” contributions to the Republican candidate, meaning he covered expenses on behalf of the campaign. That’s likely a result of the Chera family hosting former President Donald Trump at their New Jersey summer home for a Zeldin fundraiser last month. (Haim Chera’s late father, Stanley, was a close friend of the former president.)
Haim Chera didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Saturday.
While Vornado is the main beneficiary of Hochul’s Penn Station redevelopment plan, one of the main opponents has been Arnold Gumowitz, a real-estate owner whose building at 421 Seventh Ave. would be demolished as part of the plan.
Gumowitz donated the maximum $69,700 to Hochul’s campaign in January, prior to the primary. But the latest disclosure records show he has since donated to Zeldin’s campaign, too, cutting a check for $47,100 — the max amount allowed after the primary — in July.
An email to Gumowitz’s AAG Management wasn’t immediately returned.
Tagged
Lee Zeldin
Kathy Hochul
Politics
steven spielberg
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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