When Nancy Goroff won her Democratic primary in July she had a bit more than $300,000 cash on hand. Her opponent Lee Zeldin had eight times that.
- $20 million poured into Long Island’s NY-1 congressional race.
- 72% of it came from out of state. In addition, 1045 wealthy political donors skirted contribution limits ($5,600) by spreading an average of $68,000 among 13 different superPACs.
- Those superPACs then spent $8.4 million in mostly negative ads.
- This is legal so long as campaigns read specifically worded scripts to donors.
As a three-term incumbent, Zeldin had the clear financial advantage. In February, $2800 checks started rolling into his account. Mortgage bankers, life insurance companies, real estate tycoons from California — all giving the maximum amount that the Federal Election Commission allows.
And then some.
By using super PACs and outside expenditures, Zeldin’s donors were able to max out their contributions to him and then go on to spend millions more to influence Long Islanders how to vote.
For example, Tatnall Hillman is the son of a coal and oil baron. He lives in Aspen, Colorado. He gave Zeldin the maximum that law allows, $2,800 for both the primary and the general election. Then he gave to more than 100 other PACs, including two other Zeldin PACs, the Suffolk County Republicans, and two other groups that spent heavily to persuade Long Islanders, the Congressional Leadership Fund and Special Operations for America.
That money went on to buy attack ads that distorted Goroff’s police reform position as “defunding the police”. Goroff says she wants to divert some police funding toward homeless and social services.
'With Good Lawyers...'
At least $54 million flowed from maxed-out Zeldin donors to super PACS. In turn those groups then spent another $3.8 million in the district, essentially end-running contribution limits.
“With good lawyers, you can get around all this stuff,” says Paul Ryan, an election lawyer for Common Cause, an advocacy group that favors campaign finance reform.
So long as campaigns use specific language in sending donors to outside super PACs this practice is legal.
“They could have a script they should use when directing donors,” Ryan says, “but they may not have even bothered because they just think, there is no FEC, there is no enforcement. Who cares?”
The Federal Election Commission, the agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance laws, hasn’t had a quorum of commissioners for much of this election cycle, and thus unable to take any major enforcement action.
Zeldin’s campaign and his donors declined to comment. When asked in a debate about alternatives to the current campaign finance system, a proposal that includes publicly financing campaigns among other reforms, Zeldin said he opposed it.
“Your tax dollars are going to fund campaigns for candidates you don’t even agree with. I don’t believe that taxpayer funded political campaigns is the answer,” Zeldin said.
Different Team, Same Playbook
The current system makes it difficult for newcomers to challenge already entrenched politicians. Yet Zeldin’s opponent, Nancy Goroff, met this challenge by following Zeldin’s exact same playbook.
Theoretically, her list of maxed-out donors would have been capped at about $2 million dollars, instead they went on to give another $13 million to super PACs who then spent $4.6 million in the race.
Some of that money went to one ad that falsely claimed Zeldin “wants to restrict abortion even if a woman’s life is at risk.”
This is untrue. In 2015, Zeldin voted to ban abortion after 20 weeks unless the woman’s life were in danger.
In a statement, Goroff’s campaign says she supports campaign finance reform.
The reform bill she supports would make the enforcement of violations more real and would somewhat limit the usefulness of super PACs, but it wouldn’t get rid of super PACS. And it wouldn't get rid of the type of donations that helped her through the primary.
The PAC 314 Action — the same group that created the false ad attacking Zeldin’s position on abortion — spent half a million dollars supporting Goroff through the primaries.
Goroff’s list of maxed-out donors contributed about half a million to 314 Action. Many of those donors are linked through Goroff’s ex-husband and the hedge fund he worked at.
That’s How It’s Played
The total effect of this outside money is that Long Islanders make up a smaller percentage of voters financially supporting candidates — just 28%.
Mary Ann Eddy, a former nurse in Sag Harbor, is one of them.
“If everyone can play by those rules then I don’t think it’s wrong,” she says.
Eddy was never a big campaign donor until this year, usually only giving a few hundred dollars each election. But this year she spent $33,000. She maxed-out to Goroff and then gave $20,000 to PACs that supported her.
Does being wealthy make her opinion more valuable? No.
“But I think the amount of airplay those opinions get probably does correspond to the amount of contribution that is made,” Eddy says. “I think that’s unfortunate, but I think under the current system that’s how it’s played.”
