David Koch isn’t just the richest man in New York City — he has also become the biggest straw man in city politics.
Throughout the mayoral campaign, Bill de Blasio and his supporters have tried to stoke fear that Koch — a billionaire industrialist who has bankrolled the Tea Party and other conservative causes — would pour big bucks into the race and “buy” the election for Joe Lhota.
Bashing hardest was singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, who on Sunday likened Koch and his brother to the Ku Klux Klan — and cited their $100 million gift to the New York-Presbyterian Hospital as evidence of a sinister plot.
“Their money is already sewn into the fabric of our daily system, and they must be stopped,” Belafonte declared.
Before that, a web advertisement from de Blasio’s campaign accused the Kochs of “trying to elect extreme, right-wing ideologues right here in New York City.”
Now that the race is over, it’s clear these claims were a crock.
In fact, David Koch and his wife gave a grand total of $500,000 to two pro-Lhota groups — a modest amount compared to the millions other special interests invested in the mayoral campaign.
In fact, the Kochs’ giving was hardly enough to dent de Blasio’s yawning lead in the polls — and, thanks to the Kochs’ right-wing reputation, might have done Lhota more harm than good in this blue-on-blue city.
In fact, the vast majority of little-regulated “independent expenditures” in the mayoral race — which de Blasio claims to consider a blight on politics — came from groups allied with Democrats.
In fact, the mayoral candidate who wound up benefiting the most from “dark money” in 2013 was de Blasio himself.
During the Democratic primary, the hospital worker union 1199/SEIU spent $194,000 on TV, radio and newspaper ads supporting de Blasio’s campaign — not including the undisclosed amount it invested in promoting him internally to its 100,000 members.
Meanwhile, a PAC that opposes Central Park horse carriages plowed $1 million into early ads attacking Christine Quinn — helping to end her status as frontrunner and clear de Blasio’s path to victory.
In the general election, as of Nov. 2, independent groups had reported spent $1.3 million either boosting de Blasio or criticizing Lhota — more than three times what the Kochs and others had spent on Lhota’s behalf.
None of this stopped de Blasio and his supporters from painting themselves as underdogs doing battle with a vast right-wing conspiracy.
A case in point is New York Progress. Founded by unions with a vested interesting in electing de Blasio as a labor-friendly mayor, its ostensible purpose was to counterbalance a right-wing onslaught.
“If the Koch brothers start attacking Bill, then we are going to defend him,” organizer Josh Gold told Capital New York.
The group then proceeded to outspend the Kochs two-to-one on ads ridiculously portraying Lhota — a moderate Republican who backs gay marriage, immigration reform and gun control and has even expressed support for legalizing marijuana — as a Tea Party extremist.
So it’s true, as many on the left predicted, that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision of 2010 — which found limits on independent campaign spending to be violations of the First Amendment — allowed more special-interest cash to flood into the city elections.
It’s also true that Koch allies sued to have New York State’s $150,000 cap on annual campaign spending by individuals thrown out as unconstitutional — which, by the standard of Citizens United, it clearly was.
But at least Koch and his wife respected the law enough to wait for a favorable appeals court ruling before cutting their $200,000 checks at the end of October.
Back in the spring, meanwhile, business woman Wendy Neu contributed $200,000 to an anti-Quinn group — apparently flouting the state law without troubling to seek court permission.
The group’s too-perfect name? New York City Is Not For Sale.
Instead of blaming David Koch for trying to buy city elections, de Blasio and his fellow Democrats should check the mirror.
whammond@nydailynews.com
