SHOW HIM THE MONEY?
Comptroller hopeful Benjamin slammed over ‘abuse’ of his campaign war chest
New York state Sen. Brian Benjamin used money from his Senate campaign account to pay for “constituent services” at a Harlem jazz club at almost exactly the same time he and his wife held their wedding celebration there, raising questions about whether the uptown lawmaker may have abused campaign finance rules.
State records show that the “Benjamin for New York” campaign account burned through $6,693 at Minton’s Playhouse on Oct. 9 and Oct. 16, 2018.
On Oct. 14 of that year, Benjamin posted on Instagram from Minton’s about the “incredible time” he had at their wedding celebration, which boasted a who’s who of political players.
“So happy to have former Mayor Dinkins, soon to be Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, an amazing blessing from my pastor Michael Walrond Jr. and so many elected officials,” he wrote in the post. “I’d like to especially thank Dr Hazel Dukes and Manhattan Party Chair Keith Wright for being great co-hosts!”
Benjamin is running for city comptroller, a job that entails overseeing the city’s finances and its pension funds. Since announcing his run, he’s faced criticism for sitting on the board of a company led by a shady Wall Street executive — a job he stepped down from after it was reported in the Daily News.
His campaign also returned more than a dozen contributions after people listed as donors claimed they never gave to him. And now, his prior campaign spending is raising hackles among political observers — with at least one ethics expert going so far as to label it a potential violation of campaign finance rules.
David Grandeau, a wellknown ethics consultant and the former head of the New York State Lobbying Commission, said the spending on the Minton’s event is problematic
— especially for someone seeking the city comptroller job.
“You’re going to put him charge of New York City’s finances? Yeah, that makes sense,” said Grandeau, adding that such activities often serve as a bellwether for corruption down the road.
“When you abuse your campaign account, that is a gateway drug to further political corruption,” he said.
Rachael Fauss, a senior research analyst at the good-government group Reinvent Albany, suggested that Benjamin’s pattern of spending warrants further scrutiny.
“As a basic principle, campaign funds are not supposed to be used for personal purposes unless it’s related to the campaign,” she said. “This certainly raises questions about whether his expenditures are all campaign related.”
Benjamin’s campaign spokeswoman Marissa Coscia contends “there was nothing inappropriate or unusual about any of these expenditures.”
“The party at Minton’s was a supporter appreciation/mobilization event in an election year, similar to common events elected officials hold around birthdays,” she said. “The goal was to show gratitude to supporters who had worked very hard on Brian’s behalf in recent years, and for some of the attendees, to keep them motivated as Brian asked them
to help do [get out the vote] for flipping the state Senate that November.”
The nearly $7,000 in expenses at Minton’s listed on Benjamin’s campaign finance disclosure statement is attributed to “CONSV,” or constituent services. According to the state Board of Elections’ campaign finance guidebook, money spent on constituent services “can be used only by a political office holder to better serve constituents or better serve the office.”
Other guests at the wedding party include state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, Assembly members Diana Richardson and Inez Dickens, and Councilman Bill Perkins. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul also appears to have attended.
Benjamin and his wife, Cathleen McCadden, a former staffer for Wright when he was an assemblyman, appear to have married a couple of weeks before the Minton’s party, on Sept. 29 in Williamsburg, Va. On their online wedding registry, which is dated Oct. 14, 2018 — the same day as the Minton’s event — the couple request cash gifts for “starting our lives together.”
Despite that, Coscia noted that “no donations of any kind were collected in connection to the Minton’s event.”
The Minton’s expense isn’t the only one that raises questions about Benjamin’s use of campaign funds.
Several days after the couple’s 2018 wedding, campaign records list several separate expenses dated Oct. 31 totaling more than $3,000 for Delta airlines. According to Coscia, that was to send volunteers to Georgia to campaign for Stacey Abrams, who at the time was running for governor, and Rep. Lucy McBath.
State records show that his campaign also spent more than $1,200 at a Norfolk, Va., auto body shop on June 8 of last year — just days after his father-in-law’s funeral in nearby Portsmouth, according to state records and an obituary.
The same day as the expense was recorded, Benjamin posted a video on Instagram of himself marching for police reform in Harlem in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Coscia claimed the repairs in Virginia were for an accident that occurred in New York earlier, but said no police report was filed and that Benjamin “was not present when the vehicle was hit.”
“The senator’s vehicle was hit from behind on his way to Albany weeks prior. While in Virginia to be with elderly family members, he had it fixed by a mechanic who offered a good price,” she said. “The senator is the one who made this charge, he then drove to New York.”
Since 2016, Benjamin also has racked up more than $20,000 in unitemized expenses and approximately $1,000 at a Shell gas station in Providence, R.I.
He’s been a trustee at the Corporation of Brown University since 2015 — at least two of that entity’s meeting dates appear to line up with the timing of the gas station expenses — but it’s not entirely clear how travel to Providence is connected to his campaign or his work as a state senator.
Coscia maintained that Benjamin’s “political profile on education and management issues are aided by his public affiliation with the university.”