ALBANY — State GOP Chairman Ed Cox is accusing Gov. Cuomo of engaging in pay-to-play politics on public financing of campaigns.
Cox ripped Cuomo for working hand-in-glove with the son of billionaire George Soros on campaign finance reform at the same time the elder Soros was writing massive checks to the state Democratic party the governor controls.
“On the Albany ‘pay to play’ scale, this one is a 10,” Cox said.
His attack comes as a report from Cuomo’s anti-corruption commission, which may call for some type of public financing plan, is set to be released as soon as Monday.
Records show that Cuomo had personal interactions with Soros’ son Jonathan at least five times since January. Three came shortly after George Soros wrote checks totaling $750,000 to a special state Democratic party committee account that Cuomo was tapping to fund ads promoting his agenda.
Before this year, George Soros had donated a total of $25,000 to the state Democratic party since 2000 and just $10,000 to Cuomo.
The News reported in February that Cuomo was asking wealthy donors, including Soros, to give to the state committee’s housekeeping account this year to help him get his message out. Close to $6 million was raised.
Using the special account allows donors to give unlimited amounts, bypassing the usual contribution limits.
Peter Kauffmann, a spokesman for the state Democratic party, and George Soros spokesman Michael Vachon said the financier’s donations were to help fund ads promoting the governor’s gun law passed in January and had nothing to do with Jonathan Soros’ campaign finance reform efforts.
“George Soros is not Jonathan Soros and George Soros donated to the state party to support gun safety,” Kauffmann said. “Any credible reporter knows that the governor has been a strong, vocal and consistent advocate for public financing for years.”
Vachon said any attempts to connect the donations to Jonathan Soros’ efforts on behalf of campaign finance reform “are false.”
“It’s a desperate attempt to impute impropriety where none exists,” he said of Cox.
While the two said the donations were for gun control, George Soros did sign a letter this spring with other big donors urging Cuomo to pass a public campaign finance law.
A top legislative insider complained that anti-corruption commission co-chairman William Fitzpatrick has promised the panel would “follow the money” during its investigation, but has ignored interests close to Cuomo.
“The governor’s relationship with George and Jonathan Soros, the timing of these contributions, the funneling of money to the State Democratic Party to circumvent campaign finance laws — every last detail of this arrangement should be probed,” the source said.
Some close to the commission say top aides to the governor have actually worked behind the scenes in recent weeks to pressure the panel to either leave public financing out of the report completely or water it down out of fear the GOP-dominated Senate will not agree to an ethics reform package that includes it.
In an unusual move, multiple sources say a number of Cuomo appointees to the panel, at the urging of top aides to the governor, were considering Sunday submitting a dissenting opinion to the public financing recommendation.
One source said Cuomo is hoping he can shut down the commission by getting the Legislature to agree to its other recommendations, allowing the governor to argue that even the panel was split over public financing. He can then tell Jonathan Soros and the other advocates that he tried but couldn’t get it through the Senate, the source said.
A Cuomo source denied any involvement.
