By Tom Precious
ALBANY -– They are called the “24-Hour Notice Filings.’’
And they mean two things. One: the election season, thankfully, is winding down. And two: they show the last-minute, deep-pocket friends of politicians at crunch time.
So, the latest contributions under this category -– campaigns until election day must now report every donation over $1,000 to the state Board of Elections -– are now coming in and the money is already flowing mightily today. (These filings do not include the period of the last few weeks of fundraising activities; those reports are due in later this week).
Jonathan Soros, as promised, today gave $250,000 to the New York Friends of Democracy, a Manhattan-based Super PAC that has said it is trying to help Cecilia Tkacyk, an Albany-area Democrat, beat George Amedore, a Republican running in the new 63rd State Senate District that Republicans carved out earlier this year to help their odds of retaining control of the Senate. Soros is the son of billionaire George Soros, a longtime Democratic Party fundraiser and donor.
Other big donations in the last day include $50,000 from Local 1199, the big health care workers union, to the Senate Republicans. A PAC representing nurses gave the Senate GOP and Assembly Democrats $10,000 apiece, while the state AFL-CIO donated $15,000 to the Assembly Democrats. A PAC representing anesthesiologists -– fill in your own jokes here -– gave $7,000 to the Senate Republicans.
No Western New York candidates have made 24-hour notice filings yet, but that will be changing over the coming days.
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