Mayoral candidate Joe Lhota may be struggling to gain traction in the polls, but he is attracting some attention from wealthy Republicans across the country.
The Republican is 40 plus points behind his Democratic rival Bill de Blasio, but there are now two political action committees looking to spend big dollars to support his candidacy.
The first is funded by the well-known conservative Koch brothers and has been running several ads before and since this month’s primary. But another one, called New York Progress and Protection PAC, is actually suing the Board of Elections so it can spend even more cash on Lhota.
It wants to be able to collect contributions that are more than the state’s $ 150,000 limit. NY1 reached out to the group’s attorney this morning and are waiting to hear back.
But when NY1 caught up with the candidate himself in Queens at a business breakfast this morning, he said he didn’t think individuals should have a limit on how much they can give to these independent groups, essentially saying he supports the lawsuit.
“I believe that this is a First Amendment issue. It’s about freedom of speech. No one should ever be abridging any American’s right to freedom of speech. It’s why it’s in the first amendment. It’s probably the single most important part of our Bill of Rights. That’s what this is all about,” Lhota said.
It should be noted that Lhota said he knows nothing about the group, and by law his campaign is not allowed to coordinate any kind of spending with it. But clearly, these groups can make a significant impact on the mayor’s race or at least certainly try to convince voters that Lhota is the right candidate to lead City Hall.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=14578
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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