Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs accused Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s campaign of a laundry list of campaign finance law violations Thursday, and said he has filed legal complaints with the state attorney general, county district attorney and state board of elections.
In a conference call with reporters, Jacobs alleged that Mangano had used the Hicksville Republican Club, a group run by Deputy County Executive Rob Walker, as a straw donor to funnel contributions to Mangano’s campaign. Jacobs also accused Mangano’s campaign of taking more than $70,000 from corporations in excess of limits set by state law, and of paying large sums to staffers without listing specific reasons for the expenditures.
“We are alleging that this is a conspiracy with the intent to circumvent and violate campaign finance law without being detected,” Jacobs said.
Mangano’s office rejected the allegations and accused Jacobs of playing dirty politics.
“The only campaign Jay Jacobs knows is one of mudslinging and slander. All campaign contributions were properly reported and the campaign will take the necessary steps to address any contributions that exceeded the cap,” said Mangano spokesperson Brian Nevin in a statement. “That being said, Jay Jacobs is purely sour over the fact that residents and businesses throughout the Nassau support Ed Mangano for freezing county property taxes for three straight years and creating nearly 4,000 private sector jobs as county executive.”
Payments made to Nevin were part of the legal complaint made by the Democrats. The complaint alleges that the description of more than $60,000 in payments to Nevin as for the purpose of “fundraising” was unacceptably vague and did not describe individual expenses properly.
“There are expenditures that are not in any way detailed,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs’ complaint alleges that the Hicksville Republican Club, which saw a spike in donations after Walker was appointed Mangano’s deputy, used its contributions to illegally benefit Mangano’s campaign. Donations reached $363,355 in 2010, a 10-fold increase from its average donations in the years preceding Walker’s appointment, according to the complaint.
Jacobs accused the Hicksville club of serving as a straw donor for contributors wishing to contribute to Mangano without having their names appear on the campaign’s financial filings.
“It doesn’t smell good. We don’t believe that it’s right, and that’s why we filed the complain as we did,” Jacobs said.
The complaint also accuses the Hicksville club of purchasing a luxury box at MetLife Stadium for more than $200,000 and using it to host fundraisers for Mangano while failing to report that use as an in-kind contribution to Mangano’s campaign. The Hicksville club did report a $48,000 in-kind transfer to Mangano’s campaign in its January campaign filing, but the complaint also alleges that the Hicksville club exceeded its legal limits on campaign spending.
Jacobs said the Democrats had contacted the Mangano campaign about the Hicksville allegations but were rebuffed.
“We reached out over the summer and got a very nasty reply,” Jacobs said.
The other main element of the charges were that over a dozen corporations exceeded their contribution limits to Mangano’s campaign. According to state election law, corporations may give $5,000 total per year, and the Jacobs cited financial filings showing corporations that exceeded those limits to the tune of $70,000.
Bolla Management Corp., for example, made a $25,000 contribution in December 2012. And Jacobs said that many of the contributors who allegedly exceeded election law had been granted contracts by the county.
Jacobs said he believed the complaint could potentially lead to criminal proceedings.
Jacobs is no stranger to campaign finance errors. Jacobs loaned more than $190,000 from Timber Lake Management Corp., a corporate wing of his summer camp business, to the Nassau County Democratic Party from 2007 through 2010. He has said the loans were made in error and that he promptly had the loans repaid once Republicans cried foul.
For Jacobs, though, Mangano’s campaign does not get the benefit of the doubt. He said in the conference call he suspected the Republicans of a “conspiracy” to deliberately violate campaign finance law.
Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
