Jobs for NY backing makes trouble for City Council candidate

From left: Laurie Cumbo and REBNY's Steven Spinola
From left: Laurie Cumbo and REBNY's Steven Spinola

Laurie Cumbo, a candidate for Brooklyn’s 35th District City Council seat was doing fine until the Jobs for New York, the Real Estate Board of New York-backed political action committee, decided to endorse her.

“Now I have become a target for something I have no control over,” she told DNAinfo. “Their so-called support of my campaign has done more harm than good in the community.”

The real estate developer, property owner, bank and insurance company-packed PAC backs candidates it describes as having a “pro-job, pro-development agenda similar to Bloomberg’s,” REBNY President Steven Spinola told the New York Times recently.

But Cumbo, who likens the PAC’s endorsement to a target on her back, is keen for voters to know that she did not ask for the group’s support, nor does she want it. She even went so far as to publicly ask Jobs for New York to “immediately discontinue spending any independent funds in support of [her] campaign,” she told DNAinfo.

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Her opponent Ede Fox pounced on the situation, saying Cumbo’s efforts are “too little too late.”

“Had it been me, I would have been much more vocal about what [Jobs for New York] has done to undermine local government and the people’s voices,” Fox told DNAinfo.

Jobs for New York did not immediately respond to DNAinfo’s request for comment. [DNAinfo]Julie Strickland