Councilwoman files ethics charge over 'dark money'

Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez has filed a complaint with the city Ethics Board asking it to investigate a flood of "dark money" that flowed into her district to support her opponent in the May primary.

Sanchez, who represents the city's most Latino district, defeated Manny Morales in the primary by nearly 900 votes -- a surprisingly close margin.

The Sanchez campaign was well-financed. The incumbent spent $170,000 from her Friends of Maria Political Action Committee and another $50,000 from her subsidiary PAC, which is called LEAD. Both PACs filed the required campaign disclosure reports before and after the primary.

It was a different story in the Morales camp. Morales was supported by most of the district's ward leaders and, at one time, was endorsed by the Democratic City Committee.

But his campaign imploded after it was revealed that he had allegedly posted bigoted, racist and anti-gay comments on his Facebook page.

The party withdrew its endorsement and the money dried up. Morales reported raising only about $21,000 for his campaign, including $14,000 of his own money.

When Sanchez and her campaign staff looked at the Morales campaign's disclosure days before the May 19 primary, he had only about $1,400 cash on hand.  Yet, come election day, the Seventh District was filled with pro-Morales workers, many of them wearing "Vote for Manny" tee-shirts.

From all evidence, it was an expensive field operation.  But where did the money come from?  That's where the dark money part comes in. Of the 12 wards that comprise the Seventh District, only four filed campaign finance reports. The other eight did not, though such disclosures are required by state and city law.

There was, Sanchez wrote in her complaint, a "pattern of abuses that strikes at the very heart of the city's campaign law."

"The money spent in this election was crazy," Sanchez said later. "It was massive.  It was the most I've ever seen."

Sanchez has had a blood feud underway for years with some ward leaders in her district, including Angel Cruz in the 7th Ward and Carlo Matos in the 19th Ward.  Marge Tartaglione, head of the 62 Ward, is no fan either.

Sanchez's campaign was able to trace the source of some of the money by examining the filings of other PACs. Local 98, the electrician's union headed by John Dougherty, gave $25,000 to the 19th Ward and Cruz's 7th Ward gave $20,000.

The Local 98 PAC also gave $25,000 to the campaign PAC of state Rep. Leslie Acosta in the week before the primary.

The 19th never filed a report and Acosta's state PAC failed to report for Cycle 3, which would have included the $25,000 contribution.  Reached Wednesday, Acosta said she believed she had filed her Cycle 3 report with the state, though state records indicate it is missing. She did not recall the $25,000 from Local 98 in any detail.

Needless to say, Dougherty is also not a fan of Sanchez.

These are big dollars for wards that traditionally attract little money because their voter turnout is the lowest in the city.

The theory advanced by Sanchez is that once Morales was discredited, contributors did not want to be listed as giving him money, so they went through the side door and gave it to the wards instead.  In turn, the wards failed to report their income or expenditures.  "It's like putting into a black box, with no bottom," Sanchez said.

Failure to report was epidemic in the city during the primary. As The Next Mayor reported in a recent series 26 of the city's 69 wards never filed financial disclosure reports.

The Ethics Board recently wrote to all the wards that failed to report reminding them of the requirements of the law and asked them to begin reporting in the next cycle.  The Board did not ask them to file reports on the cycles from earlier this year. Sanchez, in her complaint filed Wednesday is seeking information on those earlier cycles.