De Blasio’s federal PAC gets money from real estate industry and a Trump donor

Other contributors to the Fairness PAC include Lawrence Benenson and Barry Diller

From left: Bill de Blasio, Kevin Maloney, and Barry Diller (Credit: IAC and iStock)
From left: Bill de Blasio, Kevin Maloney, and Barry Diller (Credit: IAC and iStock)

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s federal political action committee has taken in several donations from the real estate industry, as well as one of President Trump’s major donors.

Since July 1, the mayor’s Fairness PAC has raised $234,500 and spent $203,349, according to Politico, citing data from the Federal Election Commission. One such donor is Ukrainian-American businessman Alexander Rovt, who gave the maximum $5,000 to the PAC and has also given money to Trump.

“People aren’t barred from giving just because they’ve given to someone else with different views,” de Blasio spokesman Eric Philips told Politico.

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Other major donors include Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Furstenberg, who each gave $5,000 to the PAC. De Blasio had sided with Diller in his feud with Douglas Durst over Diller’s attempt to build Pier 55 on the Hudson River.

Benenson Capital Partners principal Lawrence Benenson donated $5,000 to the PAC as well, as did Property Markets Group principal Kevin Maloney.

The Fairness PAC was established over the summer to cover de Blasio and his wife Chirlane McCray’s travel costs and aims to bolster liberal Democratic candidates throughout the country. It has given money to politicians including Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Randy “Iron Stache” Bryce, the Democrat running for the seat in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin district. [Politico] – Eddie Small