Signatures of D'Amato and Trump

Daily Point

The D’Amato connection

The failure of Signature Bank, and its subsequent takeover by federal regulators, rippled through the region this week, impacting more than just Long Island residents and businesses.

Among Signature’s customers: local municipalities across Long Island.

But it’s also worth noting another Long Island connection to Signature Bank: former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato.

D’Amato is a former member of Signature Bank’s board of directors. He joined the board in July 2005. In 2018, D’Amato also served as a lobbyist for the bank. As of last year, however, Signature Bank no longer had any lobbyists, according to lobbying records, and D’Amato is no longer on the board, according to the bank’s website.

In an interview Monday on WABC’s “Minicast,” a series of short podcasts, D’Amato said he has been off the Signature board for about three years and hasn’t kept up with the bank’s performance. He noted that Signature began its cryptocurrency operation while he was there.

“It was well-controlled and being well-monitored initially and was making the bank money,” D’Amato said. “It came as a great shock to me to find out that they went from a bank that was earning all kinds of money to being closed.”

Signature also had a previous, long relationship with former President Donald Trump and his family. Signature lent Trump money for his Florida golf course and held his checking accounts, and Ivanka Trump was a former member of the bank’s board as well. Signature cut ties to Trump after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

The connections between Signature and Long Island local governments remain extensive.

Nassau County holds $95 million in certificates of deposit at Signature Bank, which spokesman Chris Boyle said are “fully collateralized and FDIC insured” and which represent less than 5% of the county’s cash balances. Boyle said Nassau officials are “confident all taxpayer funds are safe” but will monitor the situation.

Suffolk County, meanwhile, had about $259,000 in funds for its clerk’s office, but has now moved that money out of Signature Bank, county officials said.

The Town of Brookhaven has two certificates of deposit at Signature, one with $5 million in it, the other with $25 million. Town spokesman Jack Krieger said town officials have spoken to both the state comptroller’s office and Signature, and have been assured both CDs are “100% secure, backed by a letter of credit.”

The Town of Hempstead holds two accounts with Signature Bank, which were opened in 2004. The town has about $25 million from the receiver of taxes in one account, and $40 million in a separate general operating account, according to chief of staff Jack Libert. Libert said the funds are collateralized and insured, but that the town is “taking the extra precaution” of moving the funds out of Signature Bank.

North Hempstead holds $1.2 million with Signature Bank, in a restricted account called the “senior housing endowment fund,” an account the town has had since 2010. Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena noted that the town has been without a comptroller or other “management-level employees,” in part because the town board and the supervisor have been unable to agree on a comptroller candidate. DeSena said that as a result, the town had no warning of the concerns at Signature regarding its crypto-related holdings. North Hempstead officials said they, too, are exploring plans to move the funds.

Oyster Bay spokesman Brian Nevin said the town has never done business with Signature.

— Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Pencil Point

A moral hazard

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Final Point

‘Moderate’ Party? Not here, not yet

Despite recent rumors and suspicions, no evidence has yet emerged of an effort in New York State to create something called a “Moderate Party” — though some voters and candidates would surely be interested in such a line.

What’s evident is that Dan Cantor, the former executive director of the state Working Families Party — and still an at-large delegate of its national affiliate — has continued to push the cause for alternative ballot lines, including in other states.

For years, Cantor has been a fierce advocate of “fusion voting,” which has long been legal in New York. It allowed the WFP, which he helped found in 1998, become a force for progressives within the Democratic Party much as did the Conservative Party, founded in 1962, within the Republican Party.

Cantor was unavailable for comment on Tuesday. One source knowledgeable of his activities told The Point: “Dan has been one of the leading proponents of fusion voting for the past 30 years. He even took a case about fusion to the Supreme Court in the 1990s. In recent years there’s been a renewed interest.”

In that 1997 case, Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party, the court ruled that Minnesota’s ban on a candidate running on more than one ballot line did not violate the First Amendment as claimed.

In New Jersey last year, lawyers for a fledgling Moderate Party sued in an effort to bring back fusion voting to that state for the first time since 1920 when it was banned there. That involved Rep. Tom Malinowski’s effort to use this second line in his unsuccessful bid for reelection. His petitions were rejected, and a court case is still pending.

New York Republicans and Conservatives see in Cantor’s actions a potential “scheme” to deceptively dress up leftist candidates as centrist. State Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs says he wouldn’t be party to it and that it would just create confusion.

As recently as 2019, Jacobs expressed interest in banning fusion and its cross-endorsements outright. The ex-governor who picked Jacobs, Andrew Cuomo, did end up raising the bar for alternative parties to achieve automatic status on the ballot. As a result, last November’s election ballot was the first in 80 years to offer only two candidates for governor — Kathy Hochul on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines and Lee Zeldin on the Republican and Conservative lines.

— Dan Janison @Danjanison