Legal And Appropriate

Another take on what the mayor’s likes to describe as “legal and appropriate”:

It was September 2014. Republican Tom Croci was battling Democrat Adrienne Esposito for a Long Island state Senate seat. The state teachers’ union, having already given the legal maximum amount to Esposito, wanted to cut an even bigger check to the Suffolk County Democratic Committee, which can transfer unlimited funds to a candidate.

“We believed it was illegal,” said Richard Schaffer, head of the Suffolk Democrats.

Schaffer says because the money was meant for Esposito, it was an attempt to evade contribution limits, the same violation a state Board of Elections official says Mayor Bill de Blasio’s team committed in directing money to three upstate races around the same time.

“The fact that he told me, ‘We want you to spend it directly on Adrienne Esposito,’ that makes it illegal,” Schaffer said.

Schaffer says he told the union no thanks, but got a check anyway, for $100,000. His committee rejected it, writing, “we are unable to deposit your check and are compelled to return it to you.”

“They were annoyed,” Schaffer said.

Much like de Blasio now, the union, New York State United Teachers, insisted the move was legal and told NY1 it has a longstanding record of meticulously adhering to the law.

“They even said at one point, ‘Well, we do this all the time.’ And I said, ‘Well, then I think you’re doing something wrong all the time. It doesn’t mean I have to do it,'” Schaffer said.