Jay Kriegel, a senior advisor at the Related Companies, has raised $50,000 in donations for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s mayoral campaign in the last two months, acting as an “intermediary” for other donors, the Village Voice reported.
An “electoral loophole” allows individuals who would otherwise be subject to donation caps to bundle gifts from multiple people, akin to a municipal-level super PAC, or political action committee, the Voice said, citing reporting from the New York World.
Kriegel, who joined Related in 2007, has also contributed to other candidates, spreading more than $80,000 between three campaigns, as previously reported.
While Related has long been a darling of the Bloomberg administration, as The Real Deal has reported, Quinn’s ties to the company have come under further scrutiny as she moves to replace Mayor Mike.
As a City Council Member who oversees the lower West Side of Manhattan, she has influenced the development of Hudson Yards, the 26-acre megaproject spearheaded by Related and Oxford Properties.
Quinn moved to exempt Hudson Yards from the restrictions of a living wage bill requiring developers to pay construction workers at least $10 per hour, or $2.75 per hour above the minimum wage. Neither Quinn nor Related responded to the Voice’s requests for comment. [Village Voice] — Leigh Kamping-Carder