CFB Not As Easy As ABC For Sanders and Jennings

We have our first official brouhaha of the campaign season.
Newly-minted candidate David Hooks has surfaced with an attack on Councilmember James Sanders’ bookkeeping — or should I say lack thereof?
Hooks’ major contention is two-fold: First, he says Sanders’ failure to file proper Board of Elections documents for three years shows a level of disconnection to the rules that everyone has to follow. Secondly, Hooks questions Sanders’ current fundraising tactics. He says he’s seen campaign literature with both “Committee to Re-Elect James Sanders, Jr. ’05” and “Friends of Sanders” out on the street. Hooks wants to know which is the actual committee and how much money the councilman has raised.
As to the first issue, Sanders met with Elections chief John Ravitch on Monday to help rectify his past indisgressions.
“It went well,” Sanders said. “It was a very frank conversation and we spoke about steps we can take to resolve the situation. We are taking those steps. It was a substantial dialogue and we have goals and timetables set up.”
As for the second issue, Sanders is registered with the CFB but is a “non-participating” candidate, meaning he can raise as much money as he wants, but is not eligible for matching funds. He must still file his contributions for public record.
Sanders says he is doing this to protest an ongoing battle he is having with the CFB over who owes whom thousands of dollars.
“I say they owe me $11,000, but they say I owe them $2,000,” Sanders said. “I am not participating at great cost to myself (the potential tens of thousands of matching dollars he could receive if he was participating).”
Hooks believes these actions are simply indicative of a councilman he calls “inaccessible.” And he says residents are reacting negatively to the story.
“They’re taken aback, truth be told,” Hooks said. “When they hear he hasn’t filed in three years they want to know why not.”
Hooks ran in an eight-way race for the Democratic nomination in 2001 and finished last. He has worked for the SUNY system for 15 years and last week became the candidate of choice for the Queens County Democrats, who tired of Sanders’ battles with a number of local district leaders.
Hooks said he had a number of fundraisers coming up, and that he fully expected to meet the CFB threshold for matching funds. He added though that if he didn’t know how much money Sanders has taken in, he wouldn’t know whether he was eligible for 4-to-1, 5-to-1 or even 6-to-1 matching, based on his opponents funds.
“This is not just a technical issue,” Hooks said. “It’s an issue of fairness, accountability and leveling the playing field.”
Sanders said he would be fully compliant with CFB rules and that he would report how much money he has raised as of the next filing in mid-July.
“We’ve hired professionals,” Sanders said.
Well thank goodness.
Speaking of Allan Jennings…
We weren’t? Oh, well let’s anyway. It’s been at least two weeks.
Our favorite councilmanic punching bag had a lien put on his home last week because of his failure to repay more than $40,000 in Campaign Finance Board penalties — most from waaay back in 2001.
While I am no fan of the red-tape-laden, byzantine rule making, no due process-allowing CFB (I won’t tell you the many acronyms I’ve devised for those three letters over the years), the bottom line is you have to deal with them as a political entity in New York City. If you don’t pay, and pay quickly, they will make your life a living hell.
While it remains to be seen what powers they actually have here in the personal finances of an individual (no one’s ever gotten this far in the penalty process), certainly the precedent of merely filing this lien indicates the CFB means to be taken seriously.
Unlike our friend, Mr. Jennings.
politics@queenscourier.com