Real Estate Super PAC deploys $28,000 to back Abinanti with last minute mailer blitz

Financial disclosures posted this evening show that Voters of NY Inc. is sending out three mailers in the last week of the campaign to bolster Abinanti's campaign.  Each mailer costs $9,406.80 for a total of $28,220.40.   

The first of the three mailers arrived today and is below:

This mailer, which prioritizes promoting Tom as a "safe streets and safer neighborhoods" candidate,  identifies itself as being "paid for and authorized by Voters of New York, Jeff Leb, Treasurer." 

What is Voters of New York (the same as Voters of NY Inc), who is Jeff Leb, and why are they spending $28K to promote Tom Abinanti's re-election campaign? 

According to this Jewish Voice article,  Jeff Leb is a lobbyist whose "firm specializes in zoning, land use issues, budgetary matters, and legislative issues" and "is ranked by City & State as one of the top lobbyists in New York."  As well as treasurer of Voters of New York, Jeff Leb is also treasurer of Common Sense New York. The two groups are successors to PACs with similar names that were also led by Leb and funded by real estate developers to battle progressive candidates in New York City council races in last year's primaries. 

Since May 3, 2022, Voters of NY has raised $679,000 from the following donors

 

Extell Development Co. is owned by developer Gary Barnett.  WLZ Properties is William Lie Zeckendorf's company.  No one can figure out who is behind Ancel Holding Group.  

Voters of NY is sending out mailers on behalf of twelve state assembly incumbents facing primaries next week and is targeting Working Families Party and/or DSA endorsed candidates. Those mailers, like the one above sent on behalf of Abinanti, emphasize a "safety" message. 

So why is Voters of NY getting involved in 92AD and backing Abinanti?  The Jewish Voice article quotes Jeff Leb as saying that “'none of our funders in the [Common Sense] PAC played an active role in the operation or direction of Common Sense and they did not pick the races we engaged in.'”  If this is true, presumably Leb handpicked Abinant's campaign to support.   I messaged Leb through twitter to ask why his PAC is funding Abinanti mailers and received in reply a friendly but bland and uninformative response about the "best candidate" with the "vision to improve Westchester" etc.  It appears simply that Shimsky, as a WFP-endorsed candidate challenging an incumbent, fits, at least superficially, the profile of the type of candidates that Leb and his funders choose to target. 

The 92AD race just doesn't fit Leb's typical profile.  Shimsky is not a DSA radical compared to Abinanti and, except for the "Clean Slate" bill (related to sealing criminal records), which Abinanti adamantly opposes, and Shimsky says she supports, their positions on on public safety issues seem indistinguishable.     

The Vote of New York effort adds to the amount of outside spending on this campaign. Besides, the previously reported out-of-district donations each candidate has received, as well as PACs, partnerships, and corporations located in various places, the candidates have benefitted from spending that does not appear on their financial reports: several Abinanti mailers and even a robocall funded with state assembly money (potentially upwards of $150,000), funds allocated by the Greenburgh Town Democratic Committee for mailers for Shimsky ($20,000), and now the Vote for New York mailers ($28,200) for an estimated total approaching $200,000 of true "outside" spending so far.