County Dem chair aids party finances

Dan Glaun

Nassau County Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans and contributions over the past several election cycles, according to state campaign records.

And some of those loans, provided through Jacobs’ personal business, may have skirted campaign finance law before being brought into compliance after complaints by county Republicans. 

State campaign spending records show that the county Democratic committee repaid more than $190,000 in loans to Timber Lake Management Corp., a camp business owned by Jacobs, from 2007 through 2010.

“I told my CFO to send a wire to the Democratic Party we’d wire money in , and a few months later we’d get the money back,” said Jacobs in an interview. “We had to rectify it… what happened was I then (personally) lent the party money again, and it returned the money the company erroneously had lent.”

As a corporation, Timber Lake was only legally allowed to contribute $5,000 per year to the party – an error that Jacobs said was noted by Republicans, who cried foul and forced Jacobs to use personal loans instead.

Jacobs is president of Timber Lake Management Corp. , which is comprised of Timber Lake, Tyler Hill, Timber Lake West overnight camps, – North Shore and Hampton Country days camps, and North Shore Day School, a pre-school. The company does business as TLC Family of Camps.

According to Jacobs, the Democratic party’s spending often outstrips its fundraising during campaign season, requiring him to bankroll the party.

“When we have election campaigns we have a lot of expenses. A lot of our fundraising… lags behind our need,” Jacobs said. “When we need the money, I put it in.”

Efforts to reach Anthony Santino, a Hempstead town councilman who is spokesman for the Nassau County Republican Party, were unavailing.

In addition to loans, Jacobs has given $110,000 in contributions to the Nassau County Democratic Party’s political committee.

In addition to his role as county chair, Jacobs also served as the state Democratic party chairman from 2010 until May 2012, when he resigned.

Jacobs initially told Blank Slate Media all his loans to the party up until a new $100,000 expenditure in October had been repaid, but upon an examination of his finances said the state of some loans was unclear.

A financial document Jacobs forwarded to Blank Slate Media shows $513,500 in expenditures to the Democratic committee since 2004, between Jacobs’ personal and corporate accounts, and $372,000 in repayments.

Jacobs said he would look into the discrepancy, but efforts to reach him were unavailing.

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