Outside groups raise millions to bolster Blakeman, Hochul

ALBANY — Outside groups are raising millions to pour into the governor’s race as Republican Bruce Blakeman and Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul crisscross the state campaigning and raising funds.

They include the Democratic Governors Association, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority union still fuming over the LIRR strike earlier this year and a group heavily supported by the owner of the New York Knicks.

These super political action committees can accept unlimited donations and have a huge influence on a statewide race or political issue, though they are banned from formally coordinating or working with the candidates they support.

Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School, said outside groups like super PACs are playing a larger role in elections.

"Organizations like this exist to provide support for candidates," he said. "They do so technically independently and maybe actually independently, but they nonetheless intend to help a candidate."

Briffault added that the groups are managing to effectively work around rules meant to prevent them from coordinating with campaigns themselves. "They've figured out ways of cooperating without triggering the formal rules against cooperation," he said.

Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on its fundraising efforts or any super PACs that would support the campaign. But his campaign has accused Hochul of being dependent on affluent donors.

"While Hochul depends on wealthy insiders and massive checks, our campaign keeps growing because New Yorkers are ready for change," Blakeman said in a recent social media post.

Meanwhile, Hochul's campaign has tied Blakeman's backers to President Donald Trump and his donors.

"Our campaign is building the grassroots strength it takes to turn out New Yorkers across the state so that we can stop them," Hochul's campaign previously told Newsday.

Blakeman backers

There are at least four outside groups, including three super PACs, looking to assist Blakeman, the Nassau County executive.

One group, Make it Cheaper, shares some of the same personnel as one of the independent expenditure committees that aided Hochul's 2022 challenger, current Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin. The group indicated in a filing with the state Board of Elections that this year it intends to support Blakeman.

Make it Cheaper has not yet reported any donations or expenses. Under the state’s reporting schedule for campaigns and committees, the public won’t see any of the group’s financial activities until just over a month before the election.

A second group, Strong and Safe New York, began receiving donations last month from three entities linked to New York Knicks and Rangers owner James L. Dolan.

On July 7, Strong and Safe New York received $1 million via three contributions, from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. and the Coalition to Restore New York, a PAC Dolan founded several years ago.

A representative for Strong and Safe could not be reached. Dolan was not available for an interview.

Newsday previously reported that Dolan and six members of the Dolan family also each gave $138,600 for a total of $970,200 to the Nassau County Republican Committee. The committee has transferred over $2 million to Blakeman’s campaign since the beginning of the year.

Newsday owner Patrick Dolan is not among those donors.

James Dolan, a regular GOP donor, and some of those same family members donated to Hochul and the state Democratic committee in the 2022 gubernatorial election.

The Dolan family's contribution, collectively, is the largest amount given to the Nassau GOP. The county party itself is Blakeman's the biggest single backer, providing over $2.2 million of the $8.4 million he has raised since launching his campaign.

The Transport Workers Union of America also began a super PAC late last month, Transport Workers Union VOICE, opposing Hochul. Blakeman has courted the union and won endorsements from two local chapters earlier this year.

And the Republican Governors Association will also be involved in the race. The group started a political action committee last month but has not yet had to report any donations or spending.

Blakeman’s fundraising has consistently trailed Hochul by a large margin — having $4.6 million cash on hand at his last filing — but the super PACs are a way to close the gap, pouring millions of dollars into ads attacking Hochul.

A challenger like Blakeman faces the challenge of needing to campaign and reach voters while also appearing financially viable enough to attract outside attention, said Jonathan Krasno, a political science professor at Binghamton University.

"You have this problem where you need to get to sort of a threshold amount before people think you've got enough," he said. "And no one really knows what that threshold amount is because it's always changing." 

A previous supporter of Republican causes and candidates in the state, Ronald Lauder, appears to be sitting out the governor’s race this year, according to The New York Times. Lauder was the main funder in 2022 for two outside groups that helped Zeldin run a competitive race against Hochul.

Hochul's supporters

Hochul’s campaign will see support from at least one super PAC.

In 2022, the Democratic Governors Association made a late entry in the race, less than a week before the election, over concerns that Zeldin might upset Hochul.

This round, the group started far earlier.

A DGA-controlled super PAC, Greater Empire State, has reported three donations totaling $425,000 from wealthy donors: Roger Altman, an investment banker; Marc J. Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management; and Gershon Barnett, also known as Gary Barnett, the founder of Extell Development Co.

Hochul has not relied heavily on outside groups in the past.

Instead, Hochul has made her campaign's own fundraising a priority, raising more than $35 million since starting her first full term in January 2023. In her most recent campaign finance report, she recorded 27,000 unique donors, with 22,000 of them coming from online, her campaign said.

The campaign has also relied on large donors in the past and has received large donations this cycle as well, including sizable donations from firms like KPMG, which gave $93,000, and PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, which each donated $75,000 during Hochul’s first full term.

Groups that have traditionally backed Democratic candidates, like labor unions and others, also have given heavily.

The state’s Democratic apparatus is primed to help Hochul’s reelection effort as well.

The state Democratic committee’s housekeeping arm, which helps support the party apparatus, has $6.5 million on hand, buoyed by a $1.5 million donation from the Greater Hospital Association of New York.

Briffault, the Columbia Law School professor, said the outside support can play an important role in buttressing a campaign.

"The theory is we want to have strong parties apart from any individual candidates," Briffault said. "But of course it does help the candidates."