TRACKING THE HEDGE FUND BILLIONAIRE’S MONEY IN NEW YORK POLITICS
Recent events in Charlottesville are a sobering reminder that violent white supremacist groups are not the stuff of history, but a horrifying present-day reality for a country that continues to be torn apart by racism and the legacy of slavery.
Though these groups do not claim the membership rolls that the KKK did in its heyday, they have risen to new prominence over the past year, supported by infrastructure like Breitbart News and effectively urged on by a billionaire who owes his presidency to the race lie.
The recent comments of another billionaire, hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, are especially repulsive in the current context.
Loeb, in a recent Facebook post, declared that the African-American leader of the Democrats in the New York State Senate, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, had done “more damage to people of color than anyone who has ever donned a hood.”
The racist nature of the comment – making reference to, and downplaying, the terrors of the KKK while taking direct aim at an African-American female elected official – has caused an uproar.
Loeb is not just a run-of-the-mill Facebook poster: he is a billionaire with extraordinary political influence. Share on X
Dan Loeb has poured millions of dollars into the coffers of politicians like New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, into the campaigns and PACS of the State Senate Republicans and “Independent Democrats,” into education privatization groups like Success Academy, and into PACs and Super PACs at the state and federal levels.
His hedge fund manages over $17 billion and has significant ownership stakes in many large corporations. Share on X
Loeb has sought to profit from outsourcing and mass job, pay & pension cuts; from driving up prescription drug prices; from forced austerity in Puerto Rico; from dirty energy and fossil fuels; and from Republican rule in Washington, D.C — we’ve got full details on all these points in the Hedge Papers series at hedgeclippers.org.
For years, elected officials like Cuomo have taken Loeb’s money and carried water for his radical political agenda: a privatized education system, deep cuts to the social safety net, tax loopholes for corporations and billionaires, and a “democracy” by and for the mega-rich.
For years, Loeb has worked to make New York less fair and progressive than other “blue” states. Share on X
Loeb has bankrolled the toxic coalition of Republicans and “independent” Democrats that has blocked Senator Stewart-Cousins from becoming the first African-American woman legislative leader in the New York State Legislature.
The Loeb-funded GOP-IDC coalition also consistently blocks, delays or waters-down policies that would help communities of color and working people in New York.
Fair, progressive taxes; constitutionally-mandated funding for low-wealth public school districts; affordable housing and tenant protections; criminal justice reforms; minimum wage increases; strong climate and environmental protections; long-needed mass transit investments — all have been stopped or slowed by State Senate Republicans working with the IDC and Cuomo.
Politicians who support racist comments, racist policies or hard-right-wing solutions to social problems could comfortably take money from Dan Loeb — others shouldn’t.
And now that Loeb’s attitude and impact are crystal-clear, politicians who have previously taken his money should give it back.
Hedge Clippers provides this scorecard to help the public understand the scope of Dan Loeb’s tainted multi-million-dollar campaign cash contributions to politicians in New York — and to support a new campaign calling on candidates to return and reject Loeb’s tainted cash.
NEW YORK POLITICIANS WHO TOOK BILLIONAIRE DAN LOEB’S TAINTED CASH
GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO
$185,867 from Dan & Margaret Munzer Loeb
NY STATE SENATE REPUBLICANS
$437,041 to PAC, more to individual Senators
Senate Republican Campaign Committee
$437,041
$19,000
$8,000
$18,000
$11,000
$11,000
$11,000
Senator Tom O’Mara$11,000
“INDEPENDENT DEMOCRATIC” CONFERENCE
$50,000; more to Conference Leader
Senate Independence Committee
$50,000
$23,000
CHARTER-SCHOOL POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES
- New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany: $4,027,333.97
- New Yorkers for Putting Students First: $125,000
- New Yorkers for Putting Students First Independent Committee: $140,000
- Democrats for Education Reform New York State: $5,000
- Great Public Schools Political Action Committee: $300,000
OTHER NEW YORK STATE & LOCAL DEMOCRATS
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
$8,500 from Margaret Munzer Loeb
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer
$9,000 (returned money by donating to State Senate candidate Robert Jackson)
City Council Member Robert Cornegy
$4,400.00
City Council Member Dan Garodnick
$2,500.00 from Margaret Munzer Loeb
Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez
$13,200.00
$2,500 for US Houe campaign from Margaret Munzer Loeb
FEDERAL POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEES & CANDIDATES
Republicans
U.S. Representative John Faso$8100.00
U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin
$10,800.00
U.S. Representative John Katko
$10,800.00
U.S. Representative Dan Donovan
$5400.00
U.S. Representative Richard Hanna
$10,700.00
U.S. Representative Claudia Tenney
$5400.00
U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik
$2600.00
Democrats
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer$500.00 from Dan Loeb
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gilibrand
$17,500 from Margaret Munzer Loeb
U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries
$18,400.00from Dan & Margaret Munzer Loeb
U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney
$16,700 from Dan & Margaret Munzer Loeb
U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat
$8,000.00 from Dan & Margaret Munzer Loeb
U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney
$2,500 from Dan & Margaret Munzer Loeb
SPREADSHEET
KEY POINTS ON CONTROVERSIAL HEDGE FUND BILLIONAIRE DAN LOEB AND NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO
Total donations to Gov. Cuomo: $185,867
- $112,867 from Dan Loeb
- $73,000 from Margaret Munzer Loeb
Controversial hedge fund billionaire Dan Loeb is a significant donor to Families for Excellent Schools, which has provided political cover and policy ideas to Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Dan Loeb donated $2 million to Families for Excellent Schools in 2015
Loeb’s charity, the Margaret and Daniel Loeb Third Point Foundation, donated $2,000,000.00 to Families for Excellent Schools in 2015.
Families for Excellent Schools talking points were repeatedly used by Governor Andrew Cuomo
As noted by Politico’s Eliza Shapiro, Families for Excellent School’s talking points were repeatedly parroted by Governor Cuomo, and a report on “failing schools” in the state was “sometimes indistinguishable from the eight reports on struggling schools F.E.S. has sent reporters since the summer.”
Governor Cuomo spoke at a 2014 Families for Excellent Schools rally
Cuomo dropped applause lines at the March 2014 rally in Albany.
Dan Loeb has also paid event costs for two big Cuomo fundraisers.
Dan Loeb and a group of other hedge fund managers paid event costs for a fundraiser in the first year of Cuomo’s governorship
Loeb is listed on a January 2012 campaign finance in-kind disclosure, for his contribution of $4,367 in “event costs.”
Others who paid event costs during the same period include Gristedes’ owner and Democrat-turned-Republican John Catsimatidis, Stone Management’s Richard Ostroff, Centerview Partners co-founder Blair Effron, Entrust’s Gregg Hymowitz (Entrust is an investor in Third Point), and Pioneer’s Michael J. Falcone.
It is unclear whether the event costs were split between these individuals.
Dan Loeb held a July 11, 2015 fundraiser for Cuomo at his lavish East Hampton mansion
The fundraiser drew activist protests. Loeb does not appear to be listed as an in-kind contributor to Cuomo for this event. Donors who contributions to Cuomo’s campaign were reported within days of the event included Bruce Ratner, Daniel Nir, Larry Robbins, Steven Roth, John Gutfreund, Lizanne Rosenstein (wife of JANA Partners’ Barry Rosenstein).
