Quantcast

Koslowitz raises $53K in bid for boro president


As of March…

By Jennifer Warren

City Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz’s (D-Forest Hills) bid for borough president ran into some early bumps with the New York City Campaign Finance Department this year when $15,885 in donations was disqualified for matching funds by the city.

As of March 9 Koslowitz had raised $53,625 from 330 separate donations. She had spent $30,749, leaving her with $22,876 in funds.

Koslowitz, along with eight other candidates, is seeking to succeed Borough President Claire Shulman, who after 15 years in the post will be forced to step down due to term limits.

Unlike her rivals who first notified the Campaign Finance Board of their fund-raising in January 1998, Koslowitz did not inform the board of the funds she raised until July 2000, said Frank Barry, a spokesman for the board.

The city will match a New York City resident’s private contributions to a candidate’s campaign by $4 to each $1 of donations up to $250. However, the candidate must file “complete and timely” disclosure statements with the board for those funds to be included in the 4-to-1 program, Barry said.

After a board meeting and a public hearing in mid-January, the board found “Koslowitz’s committee failed to submit its first four financial disclosure statements in a timely manner,” thereby invalidating the donations for matching funds, said Barry

If the $15,885 had been matched, it would have yielded up to $63,540 in public funds. This did not help Koslowitz whose filings are on the meager side compared to the war chests compiled by her rivals.

The nine borough president candidates are Councilman Mike Abel (R-Bayside); Carol Gresser, former Board of Education representative for Queens; Koslowitz; Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Hollis); City Councilwoman Helen Marshall (D-East Elmhurst); Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer (D-Rockaway); Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio (D-Richmond Hill); Councilman Al Stabile (R-Ozone Park); and community activist Haydee Zambrana.

Of the candidate pool, Gresser has raised the most funds with $201,428. Able has accumulated the least amount of funds with $20,897, while Seminario and Zambrana have not yet filed with the board.

The inconsistent filings were a “total misunderstanding between me and the campaign finance board,” Koslowitz said in a telephone interview. She also said the problem would be remedied because she had hired Lawrence Lauffer of Run Inc. in September to coordinate her contributions.

The most frequent contributors to Koslowitz’s campaign were employees of the state Office of Court Administration, who made 22 separate contributions totaling $2,310. Individuals affiliated with the private law practice, Queens Law Associates, made 12 separate entries for a total contribution of $1,125, and employees associated with various supermarkets and food-related agencies made seven contributions totaling $1,400.

The supermarkets that appeared on Koslowitz’s campaign finance records were: Food Industry Alliance of New York; D’Agostino’s; Krasdale Foods; Edward’s Supermarkets; and Furci Foods.

Koslowitz, chairwoman of the City Council’s consumer affairs subcommittee, said she had worked with many of the food stores in her role as chairwoman.

“They’re under my jurisdiction,” she said, citing recent legislation on which she had worked involving more stringent regulations on selling cigarettes to minors and a meat-trade bill from several years ago which required the companies to wrap meats in safer packaging. The legislation, she said, was not particularly favorable to the businesses.

    Patricia Brodhagen, spokeswoman for the Food Industry Alliance of New York and a contributor to Koslowitz’s campaign, said she and members of the alliance found Koslowitz to be a “good legislator with a high level of fairness.”

Brodhagen also said the councilwoman displays a “particular sensitivity to independent business people. They recognize in her that fairness and concern that a small business in particular isn’t going to be unfairly impacted by anything the council is considering.”

The largest contributors, all of whom donated $1,000 each to Koslowitz’s campaign were Malik Mohammad, the law firm Pesetsky & Bookman, civic activist Francis Principe, Ronald Sherman, and Arnold Weg.

Other contributors included an unnamed donor from the Manhattan law firm of Davidoff and Malito, the law offices of Crowley and Crowley in Elmhurst, the Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club, Political Action Committee AT&T, Local 2507, Social Service Employees Union, EMS Political Action Committee, the Queens developer Joseph Mattone, and Principe.

Asked about the contributions from lawyers, Koslowitz said she has had an office next door to Queens Law Associates for years and the contributors from the Office of Court Administration are old friends.

“A lot of these people I knew before I was a councilwoman and a lot of these people helped on my first campaign,” she said.

Reach reporter Jennifer Warren by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.