Real estate interests that once gave generously to the G.O.P. are now filling Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coffers.
Analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group shows that more than half of New York State Republicans’ top donors between 2003 and 2006 are now giving more money to Cuomo and Dems than to the G.O.P. and its candidate for governor, Rob Astorino, Capital New York reported. Brookfield Financial Properties, the Durst Organization and Peter Kalikow, head of Kalikow & Company, are among the donors in that camp.
Between 2011 and 2014, Brookfield financed the Cuomo and Democrats to the tune of $813,000, compared with $210,000 in donations to Republicans in the three-year period ending in 2006, according to NYPIRG analysis cited by the website.
Meanwhile, NYPIRG reported that Durst forked over $304,000 to the governor and other Dems in past years — substantially more than the $182,500 the company gave the G.O.P. from 2003 to 2006.
Governor Cuomo is facing scrutiny over his alleged interference in an anti-corruption panel he himself established. The so-called Moreland Commission had questioned his ties to the real estate industry. [Capital NY] – Tom DiChristopher