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I Ran For Office, And All I Got Was This Lousy Fine --------- Can't complain too much (though I tried). All things considered, I guess $100 fine seems pretty fair for having made $2,000 worth of what the CFB deemed "non-campaign-related expenditures," and for paying on a portion of these commitments one day late, right? The irony - I was fined for my Dollars for Democracy program, the part of the campaign where I was to put my money where my mouth was. My mouth was saying that instead of just using tax-payer funds to buy-off political club endorsements, why not redirect some of these monies to community organizations that were consistently adding real value to New Yorkers on the ground? Specifically, I had pledged to redirect up to $3,000 worth of special interest monies that came into my campaign - lobbyists and real estate dollars included - to community organizations; organizations like New Yorkers for Parks, the PTA at PS 15, Gay Men's Health Crisis, the legal fund of the Phipps Plaza West Tenants Association, the Hispanic Federation, etc. The good news is that these organizations ultimately got the funds. The bad news is that the larger point was in many ways lost on the establishment, which still would rather enable campaigns to buy off assorted political entities using taxpayer funds (City Council campaigns have an allowance of $3,000 for such expenditures). When my campaign first introduced Dollars for Democracy, we calculated that if each of the 150+ campiagns running that cycle had redirected their special interest funding under the political committee exemption above, communities across New York City would have been $500,000 wealthier. But, the policy-makers (and enforcers) just didn't want it to be so...go figure!
Ouch! 11:02, those are some impressive potshots. I think you're missing the point though. Gur's entire campaign was centered around community service; it was his core message. So seems a bit strange for you to insinuate that funds were not used for campaign purposes, when that was - as far as I could tell - his reason for being in the race. East Villagian... I respect Gur... and you... whomever you are... my point was not pot shots... but lets be honest... if these expenditures were intended for things like New Yorkers for Parks, and made the day after the election... how were they for the campaign. His motives are noble... but not practical when you are a campaign. I would have preferred, as a fellow lower east sider... to see him win... and then get member money for these groups.
ok. now that we have peace and love on this post ... what you both seem to have missed is the exemption gur points out that enables campaigns to spend our public tax dollars at some of these crazy ass political clubs. that seems a bit f$#ked up. where's the logic in that?
You deliberately broke campaign finance law and all you got was a hundred dollar fine? That seems to be a real bargain. I have no idea if your idea was admirable or not because I don't live in NYC. It certainly seems well-intentioned. I'm just not crazy nuts about the notion of creating your campaign rules because you don't like the existing ones. Just by a pure political calculation, I think that New York Times endorsement Gur got was well worth the $100.
I think that was the right thing to do some laws and fines are just a joke. This spending the money should be kept up.
I think you're missing the point though. Gur's entire campaign was centered around community service; it was his core message. So seems a bit strange for you to insinuate that funds were not used for campaign purposes, when that was - as far as I could tell .Inflatable Party Rentals | Free arabic movies now that we have peace and love on this post……
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This is the most ridiculous argument I've ever heard. You were supposed to use campaign donations FOR YOUR CAMPAIGN. If you want to be a humanitarian... start a not for profit or a 501c3 or join the board of these groups and raise money on your own for them. You are not supposed to put city matching funds towards anything but your CAMPAIGN. I don't get it. Why did you run for office? Why didn't you use that money during the campaign to get out the fact that you received the NY Times'.
And the worst part is that you are coming off as duplicitous... you obviously solicited these "special interest" donations. You certainly aren't Eliot Spitzer or Barack Obama... so no one was throwing money at you saying "OH Gur, PLEASE RUN"... so why did you not tell these people that you would take their donation and try to play the martyr with their money. Better yet... why did you not RETURN the contributions. Take the holier than thou game to another profession.