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Murphy said unlawful contributions to county committees have been used to hired vendors who also “worked on the political campaigns and non-profit campaigns.”
State Board of Elections investigators said the donations were structured as transfers to evade individual contribution limits, Murphy said.
Murphy unveiled a bill Thursday that would raise the classification for such violations of state election law from a Class E to a Class D felony.
Law breakers could get up to seven years in prison, the senator said.
Murphy, who appeared in White Plains outside the Westchester County Board of Elections with Putnam County GOP Chairman Anthony Scannapieco Jr., said transfers by party committees to candidates are common place in the state.
However, using the committees as straw donors to disguise a single contribution is “a first in the history of New York election law,” the senator said.
Calling it a “statewide corruption scandal” engineered by Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Murphy said donations from individuals “seeking city favors” were laundered through local party committees, “in order to disguise single contributions as transfers.”
“The Hudson Valley is not for sale," Murphy declared.
The money aimed to help several upstate candidates in 2014, so Democrats could regain control in the Senate, which is now in the hands of a small Republican majority, Murphy has claimed.
Justin Wagner, a Croton-on-Hudson resident who ran against Murphy for the 40th District seat in 2014 and lost, benefited from an influx of New York City donations to Putnam Democrats, according to Murphy spokesman Mike Jefferson.
The Putnam committee also transferred money to Sen. Terry Gipson, who lost a re-election bid to Republican Sue Serino in the 41st District Senate race, media reports said.
According to media reports, the allegations are being investigated by federal and state prosecutors.
Murphy asked Putnam District Attorney Bob Tendy to probe any alleged wrongdoing, Jefferson said.
Murphy's district covers the towns of Carmel, Patterson and Southeast, city of Peekskill, the towns of Cortlandt, Lewisboro, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers and Yorktown, the town/village of Mount Kisco, and the villages of Briarcliff Manor, Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Pleasantville and Sleepy Hollow.
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