Published: July 22, 2010

Amid an all-out fight to retain its majority in the fall elections and an already high burn rate through its campaign war chest, the Democratic State Senate Campaign Committee spent $3,125 paying off the campaign debt of a member of the New York City Council.

That Council member, Debi Rose, was ordered to report at minimum $13,000 in additional expenditures for her successful Council race last fall as part of the February settlement of a lawsuit brought against her campaign and the Working Families Party’s for-profit company, Data & Field Services by former Giuliani deputy mayor Randy Mastro in Staten Island Supreme Court.

The suit forced the separation of DFS from the Working Families Party. Mastro’s attempts to claim that the terms of the settlement are not being adhered to have, at least for the moment, been unsuccessful.

Among the money that went to Rose from the DSCC was a $2,750 contribution to “Debbie Rose for City Council” on May 13, according to the July filings of the DSCC’s Housekeeping Account.

Housekeeping accounts, which are subject to laxer regulations and uncapped contributions limits, are not meant to be used for political contributions, which according to the DSCC, is why it asked for a refund of the money from Rose shortly afterward. The DSCC then cut a check for $2,750 to “Debbie Rose 4 City Council” out of its regular campaign account, according to its July filings, and another on the same day for $1,375 to “Friends of Debbie Rose,” the account left over from Rose’s unsuccessful special election campaign from February 2009. Both represent the maximum amount that could be given to each campaign account under New York City campaign finance law.

Rose reported the contributions and donations on her own July filings with the State Board of Elections, though she does not list receiving the checks until some time after the DSCC’s filings indicates they were given.

Asked to explain the expenditures and the money that temporarily came out of the Housekeeping account, DSCC spokesman Eric Blankenbaker said, “We supported a friend in her efforts to defray campaign debt. In that process, we made two contributions, one of which was inadvertently done out of the wrong account. We immediately requested a refund and made it out from the correct account.”

The contributions were solicited by Rose, according to the DSCC.

Blakenbaker did not respond to requests for comment on who approved this expense, or whether the contributions had anything to do with the DSCC’s relationship with the Working Families Party. The WFP itself received a $25,000 contribution from the DSCC in January, days after the deadline passed for the beginning-of-the-year campaign finance filing.

DSCC executive director Josh Cherwin declined to elaborate on Blankenbaker’s statement, or on why the DSCC was spending money closing out the debt of a City Council candidate—who represents safe Democratic territory on Staten Island’s north shore, encompassed by State Sen. Diane Savino’s district—in a year with many competitive State Senate elections. (The DSCC also spent money defending incumbents facing primaries in safe Democratic districts in Queens and Manhattan.)

In addition to the money from the DSCC, Rose also received the maximum allowable campaign contribution of $2,750 from the CWA District One PAC and the Local 32BJ NY/NJ American Dream Fund. The Communications Workers and 32BJ are two of the key components of the Working Families Party. Between these and other contributions, Rose finished the cycle with $8,246 on hand.

Though Rose filed her paperwork with the state Board of Elections, the City Campaign Finance Board shows no record of a filing with it for July.