With the primaries behind him and a third term seeming like a safe bet, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has started raking in the big bucks from the real estate industry.
After declining to contribute earlier in the year, the Real Estate Board of New York topped the donor rankings in New York City for the latest filing period (between Sept. 25 and Oct. 5), providing the governor’s campaign with $15,000 from its political action committee.
A range of other real estate interests from the five boroughs and upstate chipped in as well, with some doing so via LLCs – a practice the governor has previously criticized.
According to Crain’s, Bronx-based Simone Development gave two contributions totaling about $4,832 for “event costs,” while Saber Real Estate Advisors, Prestige Properties and title insurance firm Royal Abstract provided a total of $15,000 to the governor. Mack-Cali, CBRE vice chairman Jeffrey Dunne and SL Green founder Stephen Green each gave $5,000.
This filing period brought Cuomo’s total campaign funds to more than $24 million, 100 times more than his Republican rival Marc Molinaro.
In in its October cover story, The Real Deal examined whether Cuomo’s cozy relationship with the industry could change during a third term. [Crains] — Kevin Sun