Dan Damico
By Dan Damico, Candidate for Westchester County Legislator -D-16
In politics, one of the most revealing things you can look at isn’t a speech or a press release. It’s a campaign finance filing.
New York State requires candidates for public office to publicly disclose who donates to their campaigns. These are public records and anyone can look them up at the New York State Board of Elections. The reason we have these disclosure laws is simple: voters deserve to know who is funding the people who make decisions on their behalf.
I want to be completely transparent about my campaign. Every dollar I raise comes from individuals who believe in what I’m fighting for, which is lower taxes, better infrastructure, and real housing affordability for the families of District 16. You can always ask me directly who supports this campaign, and I will tell you.
Voters deserve to ask that same question of every candidate running for office, including my opponent.
Here are the facts voters should be aware of, all based on public records:
The current District 16 legislator chairs the Housing and Planning Committee of the Westchester County Board of Legislators. That is a position of significant influence over housing policy, development approvals, and planning decisions in Westchester County.
According to public campaign finance filings, some of the largest donations to her campaign have come from:
- Luxury apartment developers operating in Yonkers, the same developments being built in a district where longtime residents are getting priced out
- Peckham Industries, one of the largest paving and road construction companies in the Westchester region
- Elite Feats, a race marketing and production company (ironically my opponent hosts a 5k race for domestic violence).
My opponents’ financial disclosures showing her major donors being luxury developers in Yonkers as well as a Westchester Paving company and race marketing company. All the while she sits on housing and planning committee and hosts an annual race.
My opponent’s financial disclosure showing an architect firm in Yonkers Donating to her campaign. All the while she sits on the Housing and planning committee.
I want to be very clear: these are donations on the public record. I am not alleging that any laws were broken. I am not attacking anyone’s character.
But I am asking the question that every voter should ask:
When the Chair of the Housing and Planning Committee receives large donations from luxury developers, and then makes decisions about county housing policy, do the families of District 16 come first, or do the donors?
When a legislator who oversees county infrastructure receives donations from a major paving company that does county road contracts, who is she thinking about when she votes on the county budget?
These are fair questions. They are the right questions. And the voters of District 16 deserve honest answers.
Politics works the way it does because most people don’t look up campaign finance records. Most people don’t make the connections. I’m making them visible because I believe you have the right to know.
I’m running this campaign the old-fashioned way: door to door, neighbor to neighbor, dollar by dollar from real people in this district. Because the only people I owe anything to when I get to that legislative chamber are the families of District 16.
To see my opponents full campaign finance disclosure click this link: NYSBOE Public Reporting System : Contributions By Recipient and type in their name.
