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What's A "Bundler," And How Are They Bringing Money To The Mayoral Race?

David Cruz

Published May 18, 2021

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David Cruz

Published May 18, 2021

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Two dozen people who are limited from contributing to candidates because of their business ties with the city are legally circumventing those restrictions by serving as “bundlers,” or moneymakers who collect donations for candidates.

So far, current campaign filing records show the mayoral campaigns of Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia, and Scott Stringer are among the candidates in this election cycle who have received thousands of dollars in donations on behalf of bundlers, also known as intermediaries.

Experts say that while permissible, such an arrangement, which has been criticized by the city Campaign Finance Board (CFB), allows bundlers to boost their chances of getting face-time with those primed to acquire power. To have access to the mayor, for instance, could mean potentially swaying the appointment of commissioners at the over 40 agencies and representatives to city boards and commissions, according to campaign and good government experts. They add those meetings could help bundlers curry favor with city officials while giving themselves or clients a competitive edge in scoring lucrative deals.

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, told Gothamist/WNYC that these bundlers may not want to solicit help from a prospective candidate immediately, but fundraise to ensure their phone call to the next mayor is answered.

"What it does allow you is at least access to make the argument. And the mayor has tremendous power; he has lots of agencies that make lots of decisions, have lots of buying power that impact people's lives on a daily basis,” Sheinkopf said. “That’s what makes the system work. It’s the lubricant.”

A review of the city’s Doing Business Database (DBDB)—which provides a list of people affiliated with groups who are or attempting to lobby, contract, or discuss a land use deal with the city—shows 24 people appeared on the CFB’s bundler list. Anyone on the bundler list must first register with the CFB as one. Anyone on the list can personally give a maximum of $400 to a mayoral candidate, compared to a maximum of $5,100 if not listed, a policy the CFB instituted to prevent any kind of pay to play.

“The folks who I chose to support, I know them already,” Frank Carone, a well-connected attorney on the list who has bundled for Stringer’s mayoral run, said. “And I watched them work and I got to know them as individuals and their character. It's not that I've helped raise money with the hopes of getting to know someone. I feel they’re already friends of mine if I want to be so bold as to call them friends.”

Carone is listed on the Doing Business Database because of his position as a contracts manager for the law firm he works for, Abrams & Fensterman, which currently has a contract for legal services with the city. By serving as a bundler while on the list, it raises questions over whether such an arrangement lends the appearance of legal pay-to-play, according to John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, a good government group.

“It's a giant loophole that really reduces the effectiveness of the doing business restrictions,” Kaehny said, adding that even a small contribution can net a sizable return on investment.

“The city does billions and billions of [dollars in] contracts a year and your business wants to be getting new contracts all the time. So you always want to be investing in the next crop of elected officials as they come up,” Kaehny said. “And the mayor has extraordinary powers by far more than anyone else, or even the council altogether, to enrich people by awarding them contracts.”

One example was Jona Rechnitz, the notorious real estate developer who collected a total of $41,650 in contributions to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 2013 campaign. Rechnitz later had direct access to de Blasio, making recommendations over who should be the next city Buildings Commissioner, among many favors he sought and, in some cases, received. De Blasio, according to emails obtained by the Daily News at the time, would tell Rechnitz in an email he was “all ears.” Rechnitz got in trouble for operating an illegal hotel. Instead of receiving fines and a vacate order, Rechnitz only paid fines, according to the Daily News. De Blasio has denied any special relationship with Rechnitz. In December 2019, Rechnitz was imprisoned for bribery not linked to his bundling.

The most recent campaign filings only show activity up to March 11th, and do not reflect the upcoming campaign disclosure records that will be made publicly available on May 21st.

Benefitting substantially is Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and mayoral candidate who currently has the biggest campaign war chest with nearly $8 million. Campaign records show he received a total of $12,000 in contributions from bundlers, who, as first reported by The CITY, sit on a nonprofit Adams controls called One Brooklyn Fund.

One of those bundlers on the DBDB list is Jed Walentas, a principal partner for Two Trees Management, a DUMBO-based development group that seeks to build a mixed-use waterfront development in Williamsburg. Filings show Walentas raised $5,100 for Adams’ mayoral campaign in 2018. Other CFB records show employees at Two Trees Management have directly contributed a total of $6,400 to his campaign, plus an additional $1,460 from the CFB’s taxpayer matching funds program, according to campaign filings. A spokesperson for Walentas did not return a request for comment.

Another bundler for Adams was Edolphus Towns, a former member of Congress and principal consultant with E.T. Consulting Services. He raised $6,940 in October 2018, several months after Towns was hired to lobby Adams on a 422-unit affordable housing residence in Brooklyn that’s yet to receive a certificate of occupancy. A campaign spokesperson for Adams deferred Gothamist/WNYC to the Borough President's Office, though they told The CITY that Adams was already in support of the project well before he was lobbied. Towns did not return a request for comment.

“Thousands of New Yorkers are supporting Eric’s campaign for mayor because they share his vision for the city and believe he is the candidate to lead us out of this crisis,” Thies said. “In no way do campaign contributions affect the borough president’s decisions as a public official.”

Thies added that Adams supports campaign finance reform but did not say whether those on the list should be barred from fundraising.

Adam’s relationship with Walentas isn’t the only instance where he appeared to be mixing fundraising with governing. The New York Times reported Monday that Adams had approved the rezoning of a section in Brooklyn for a project by developer David Schwartz. Schwartz submitted a zoning application to build a 40-story tower on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn, on a parcel that would have only allowed for 24 stories. The approval came six months after Schwartz held a fundraiser for Adams in which he reportedly raised $20,000 that day. The project (at 570 Fulton) drew objections from the local community board 2, who voted against having the section rezoned. The New York City Council didn't stand by the community's request, and ultimately approved the zoning change for the mixed-use property. Mayor Bill de Blasio later approved it.

“The CFB will review all information pertinent to its continuing audits of the 2021 campaigns,” Matt Sollars, spokesperson for the CFB, told Gothamist/WNYC in a statement.

Other top bundlers on the list include the principal lobbyists with Constantinople & Vallone Consulting, LLC, a group that specializes in getting “you in the door at every level,” according to its website. The group’s skill set, they state, includes navigating clients through the land use process and having a say in the introduction of a legislative bill. Their client list is mainly composed of developers looking to build in New York City.

The group, which includes lobbyist Anthony Constantinople and principal lobbyist Perry Vallone, raised a combined $40,500 on behalf of mayoral candidates and candidates running for New York City Council.

Constantinople held a fundraiser for Scott Stringer in October 2018, gathering $7,300 in donations from six individuals and one political action committee. Vallone has bundled for council member Rafael Salamanca Jr., chair of the Land Use Committee who is rumored to eye the post of New York City Council speaker. Constantinople and Vallone did not respond to a request for comment.

Stringer also received help from Carone, an attorney who had represented the Brooklyn Democratic Party and two landlords involved in a controversial, $173 million deal with the city in 2019. Filings show Carone collected $18,350 for Stringer in 2018 for his 2021 run. Carone’s wife, Diana, also gave Stringer $3,100 that same year.

Carone told us that he was unaware he was on the list and finds nothing wrong with fundraising for candidates he supports. People on the list can request to be taken off. Stringer’s campaign did not return a request for comment.

Garcia, the former New York City sanitation commissioner, also received donations collected by Rachel Foster, a registered bundler who serves as the president of Heights Advisors. The Brooklyn-based realty group is behind the construction of 84 units atop 285 Schermerhorn Street in downtown Brooklyn. The building is already home to Brooklyn Community Services, a social services nonprofit that received $27 million in city contracts in 2018. The Schermerhorn Street project, announced in 2014, is currently on hold after building inspectors found construction crews improperly using an elevator to hoist equipment.

Records show Foster raised $3,110 in December last year and January this year for Garcia. (Garcia and Foster did not return a request for comment.)

Bundling isn’t illegal, and it doesn’t always guarantee it will reap a return on investment. But Kaehny said it doesn’t make it right. The CFB has unsuccessfully attempted to convince the New York City Council to bar those on the DBDB list from serving as bundlers.

This was born out of the 2013 mayoral election, where the CFB found 24% of individuals on the list were bundlers. Of the top ten bundlers in that cycle, six were listed in the list, according to the CFB.

“It's not like the City Council and the mayor don't know how it works, because guess what? They're the ones getting contacted by lobbyists every second and bothered by them so they know exactly how it works,” Kaehny said.

Tagged

campaign bundler

election 2021

David Cruz

David is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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