2 political action committees pay nearly $1M to end probe into alleged coordination with Zeldin campaign

ALBANY — Two big-spending political action committees quietly paid nearly $1 million last week to end an investigation alleging they violated election laws by illegally coordinating activities with Lee Zeldin’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign.

The settlement brings to a close an extensive probe centered on at least $20 million spent by the PACs in an effort to help Republican Zeldin, who now is part of the Trump administration, in his unsuccessful run against Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The agreement, obtained by Newsday, is dated Sept. 16 — one day before a hearing officer had set a hearing date in the matter. The settlement was first reported by The New York Times.

In the document, the State Board of Elections enforcement counsel’s office said there was an "evidentiary basis for potential legal claims" against the two PACs, called "Save Our State Inc." and "Safe Together New York."

The groups agreed to pay a $900,000 fine — believed to be the largest ever in New York in a case involving a political action committee coordination with a candidate.

The PACs — which benefited from large donations from billionaire Ron Lauder — didn’t admit wrongdoing in the settlement. Zeldin, who now leads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was not a party to the agreement.

James Featherstonhaugh, the lawyer representing "Save Our State," said in a brief phone call Friday the agreement was made in the interest of settling the matter.

He confirmed the fine has been paid.

A spokesman from Zeldin's EPA office noted the settlement "does not include an admission of wrongdoing by the super PACs," and added: "Mr. Zeldin, who is now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was not a party to the agreement.”

State Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs told Newsday: "Based on the damage done, I'd say they got off easy."

Hochul fended off Zeldin in 2022 in a hard-fought contest.

"You hope it sends a signal to future dark-money campaigns that they can get caught," said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group and a longtime campaign watchdog.

"We certainly can see these PACs were doing all they could to push the envelope," he said. "The danger is potential wrongdoers are willing to roll the dice to see if they get caught — and how do you deter that?"

Horrner, a State Capitol staple for decades, said it appears to be the largest such fine in an illegal coordination case.

Under law, Super PACs must be independent entities and are prohibited from coordinating efforts with a candidate. Unlike a candidate’s campaign committee, such "independent groups" are bound by caps on expenditures and donations.

But Save Our State Inc. and Safe Together New York have multiple individuals whose roles may overlap with Zeldin’s campaign, according to an October 2022 report by the Albany Times Union and state Democrats, who had filed a complaint with the Board of Elections.

The Times Union had reported Zeldin referred to his campaign and the committees as "we" and said his campaign and the outside groups would collectively outspend Hochul during the election's final month.

The state investigation ramped up at about the same time, headed by elections enforcement counsel Michael Johnson.

The settlement document notes the elections board’s enforcement counsel found Save Our State made at last "46 separate expenditures in the form of political communications totaling $7,462,312.19 million to support candidate Lee Zeldin."

Safe Together New York made at least 40 expenditures totaling more than $12 million to support Zeldin, the document said, adding:

"Based upon investigation, the (enforcement counsel) believes SOSNY and STNY made coordinated expenditures, in the form of political communications" to help Zeldin and "falsely identifying such political communications as independent expenditures."

The downside of the outcome, Horner noted, was the case floated deep into 2025 — long past the 2022 Election Day and well beyond impacting the contest at stake. It shows the problem all levels of government have in enforcing campaign laws in "real time."

"These dark money campaigns are a cancer on democracy," Horner said, "and the inability of the system to tackle this problem in real-time is what can metastasize an election result."

With Billy House

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy