Super PACs target AOC-backed ‘defund the police’ NY candidates

Two political action committees bankrolled by New York business interests are waging a hard-hitting $1 million counteroffensive to defeat “defund the police” state Assembly candidates running in Tuesday’s Democratic primary races.

The related Super PACs — Common Sense New Yorkers and Voters of New York — have sent out mailers attacking the lefty candidates as soft on crime and are engaging in an 11th-hour “get out the vote” effort through robocalls, text messaging and other canvassing, said Jeff Leb, the treasurer of both groups.

“We are specifically running independent campaigns against socialist candidates who have declared publicly and privately that they want to defund the police,” said Leb.

“We have done multiple polls that confirm that across NYC and NYS regardless of the neighborhood or the district, public safety is the number one issue of concern to Democratic voters,” he added.

The candidates targeted by the groups are backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx/Queens), the left-wing Working Families Party and the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Leb said his groups will conduct a similar campaign to bolster pro-safety candidates in state Senate primaries in August.

At least three mailers have targeted insurgent Jonathan Soto — a former AOC staffer endorsed by the socialist congresswoman and the WFP — who is running against veteran Assembly incumbent Michael Benedetto in The Bronx.

“Don’t vote for Jonathan Soto. He’s Too Extreme for the Bronx,” said one mailer, which described the “defund” challenger as a “dangerous, reckless, socialist.”

The PACs have also run attack ads against insurgent Jessica Altagracia Woolford, who is running against veteran Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz in the northwest Bronx Assembly District 81 covering Riverdale, Kingsbridge Heights, Norwood and Woodlawn; and Samy Nemir Olivares, who is seeking to topple incumbent Erik Dilan in Brooklyn’s District 54, covering Bushwick and Cypress Hills.

Benedetto, who is not connected to the independent groups, on Sunday welcomed their campaign.

“They accurately point out that my opponent wants to defund the police. I’m not for that all. I happen to be in the same political camp as Joe Biden,” said Benedetto, who received a donation from the New York State Troopers PAC.

“They realize [Soto] is a radical who is out of step with the mainstream. We don’t want that.”

Soto on Sunday sought to turn the tables, saying Benedetto is backed by “Trump Republicans” who are sending attack mailers “distracting voters from what’s actually being defunded, our schools!”

Mayor Eric Adams has endorsed the more moderate Benedetto, and donated to his campaign in the ongoing proxy war with Ocasio-Cortez over the direction of New York’s Democratic Party.

The Adams-affiliated Striving for a Better New York gave Benedetto $4,700 work in mid-June, state BOE records show.

The AOC-backed Courage to Change PAC, meanwhile, donated $4,700 to Soto and cut four-figure checks to seven other lefty candidates in recent weeks, including challengers running against incumbents Dilan, Kevin Cahill (D-Ulster) and Nikki Lucas (D-Brooklyn) in the state Assembly, records show.

Dilan’s father is former longtime state Brooklyn state Sen. Martin Dilan, who lost a 2018 primary to the DSA-backed Julia Salazar.

The younger Dilan received a $4,700 check of his own from A.J.W. Properties Management and $2,000 from a PAC associated with state realtors, in addition to at least $13,000 more in donations from other labor and trade groups in recent weeks.

As for the two pro-law and order Super PACs, campaign finance records show Voters of New York received four donations from real estate and financial interest in recent weeks totaling $250,000.

Silverstein Properties gave $50,000 while Thomas Tuft, a former chairman of the Global Capital Markets Group at Goldman Sachs chipped in $25,000. Anel Holding Group and Broadwest Group 3 LLC contributed $100,000 and $75,000 respectively, according to campaign finance filings.

More than $100,000 in these donations went to just two entities – Live Media Productions LLC of lower Manhattan and Albany Marketing Solutions just blocks from the state Capitol, according to campaign records.

Both companies also received dozens of payments totaling a similar amount from Common Sense New York in recent days, records show.

Donors to this group include a litany of limited liability companies representing real estate and financial interests. The family-owned United American Land gave $100,000. Venture capitalist Lisa Blau gave $50,000, according to records.

The insurance industry and other trade groups have dumped $6,000 on Cahill, who chairs the Assembly Insurance Committee, as he battles back a challenge from the DSA and WFP-backed Sarahan Shrestha.

Shrestha also got $4,700 from the AOC-backed PAC on June 24, records state.