Rye Council Campaign Committees at Odds Over Spending

Of interest to those closely following the Rye City Council race is a story about improper campaign spending allegations reported last Friday, November 4 in the Rye Sound Shore Review.

Associate Editor Christian Falcone reported City Democratic Chair Rod Brown filed a complaint with Board of Elections alleging spending irregularities and improper campaign finance filings by the Republican Council candidates, including undisclosed contributions and spending.

According to Falcone's story, Rye City Democrats also allege the Rye Republican Committee has, to date, failed to properly register the committee- Rye City Republicans- on whose behalf campaign advertising expenses have been made. 

Rye Council Democratic candidates Paula Gamache, Josh Nathan and Catherine Parker issued a joint statement Sunday about the Board of Election complaint:

“Our campaign finance laws were enacted to make sure that voters know how much money candidates for political office have raised, who contributed that money and how the candidates have spent it. Proper financial disclosure is essential to open and transparent government. The Rye Republican candidates for City Council appear to have disregarded this principle, and now it is impossible for the voters of Rye to find out in a timely way where the Republicans’ financing has come from, and how they have spent it.”

According to the Sound Shore Review, Brown alleges the expenses documented by local Republicans exceed their documented contributions.

Former Rye City Court Judge Peter Lane, executive director of the Rye Republican Committee, denied any suggestion that the spending practices were unusual. On behalf of the Republican committee, Lane sent the following statement to Patch:

In a city like Rye, the citizens expect and deserve a collegial, well-debated, substantive campaign, rather than last-minute diversions that attempt to shift the focus to what most voters consider to be irrelevant.

We find it sad that the self-anointed "experience" ticket is trying to use for last minute gain what was–at most–an inadvertent filing error with which our candidates had no involvement. As the Rye Republican Committee has explained, we had a copy of a campaign document that had been properly filed with Westchester County rejected by New York State because it lacked an original signature.  That document has already been resubmitted and accepted.

We also explained that, as allowed by law, some campaign expenditures were made by the Republican City Committee, rather than the BEST for RYE campaign committee, and that any and all expenses and contributions will be fully accounted for, as required by the New York State Election Law. 

We have tried to run a positive, issues-driven campaign from the outset and regret that our opponents don't believe in doing the same thing. 

It is unclear whether this issue will be resolved before the Tuesday election, but Falcone reported the Board of Elections had acknowledged receipt of the grievance.