Politics & Government

GOP: Alec Baldwin Committee Violates Campaign Finance Regs

East Hampton Conservators deny wrongdoing; Republicans file with the New York State Board of Elections.

The East Hampton Republican Committee claims that the East Hampton Conservators, a political action committee that actor Alec Baldwin founded six years, has improperly used funds to pay for political ads.

In a statement issued on Monday morning, Republican leaders allege that full page advertisements the committee took out in local weekly papers endorsing the entire Democratic slate violates campaign finance rules.

East Hampton Conservators' David Doty denied any wrongdoing calling it "a lot of hyperventilating from political operatives who do not support the mission of the East Hampton Conservators."

Stuart Jones, a Republican committeeman, filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections' Enforcement Division, dated Oct. 16, according to paperwork the GOP supplied. Tom Knobel, the vice chairman of the Republican Committee, said the complaint was mailed on Friday.

"It may be that this group called the East Hampton Conservators is simply a political committee cloaking itself as a PAC," Jones wrote in his complaint.

"No finance limits have been violated, and it is our constitutionally protected right to support candidates," David Doty, the treasurer, said. "We look closely at the candidates' records and their campaign platforms to see if they are consistent with the mission of East Hampton Conservators, and there is no secrecy about which candidates we support, nor why."

An Oct. 9 ad in The East Hampton Press shows the East Hampton conservators are supporting Larry Cantwell, for supervisor, and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez and Job Potter for East Hampton Town Board. "Join us in Supporting the Entire Democratic Slate," the ad stated.

The ad was read to Josie Jackson, a senior accountant at the State Board of Elections, on Monday. "I believe that is not acceptable," she said, adding that a PAC can write a check in support of a political candidate, but not pay for the ad directly.

The board of elections will review the complaint.

Meanwhile, Doty said donors to the committee are from all political parties. "This year, we are supporting for supervisor the same candidate who who won the recent Republican primary write-in as well as the Democratic nomination," Doty said referring to Larry Cantwell.

"This is much ado about nothing. What we should be talking about is preserving our beaches and preventing hardening structures on them which will just lead to more erosion, reducing the endless assault noise from the airport and its concomitant pollution, and investing the unspent monies in the CPF which taxpayers have paid under the promise that they will see preservation of our environment," he said.

According to the Conservators' website, the group is a political action committee, registered with Suffolk County and the State Board of Elections. Founded in 2007, the purpose was "to control development and population growth, protect the environment and pure drinking water, preserve open space and our quality of life," the website states. Baldwin conceived of the idea and helped found the Conservators.

"PAC's are neither political parties nor political committees. They do not select candidates to run for public office," their website explain. "PAC's are private organizations created to raise funds to support political parties, committees, and candidates, and promote legislation." The Conservators' website said it is the only environmental protection organization on the South Fork that can support and endorse the election of environmental candidates to office.

Republicans claim the same misuse of money in previous elections.

"This inappropriate use of funds from this mislabeled 'Conservator' group has been a continual pattern," according to the GOP.

As part of the complaint Jones filed, an ad supporting Democratic candidates Zachary Cohen, Sylvia Overby and Peter Van Scoyoc in the 2011 election was included, as was a financial disclosure report from 2012 that shows the group paid the newspaper directly for the ad.

"Since our founding, our receipts and expenditures have been disclosed, which not every committee or candidate has chosen to do in East Hampton," Doty said. "Indeed, it is from the open and transparent records we file with the State that the Republican Committee press release gets its information. "


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