New City, Oct 28 — David Carlucci’s campaign held a “street theater-style protest” event to in front of Rockland County Executive Scott Vanderhoef’s office today to draw attention to what they say is “pay to play” behavior by the Republican NYS Senate candidate.
Carlucci’s campaign has accused Vanderhoef of accepting over $9200 from companies that have current contracts with Rockland County “making them flat out illegal,” according to Carlucci.
A Vanderhoef spokesperson called the rally “juvenille behavior” saying that it sets a new low point for Rockland political campaigns. “This was a silly publicity stunt orchestrated by the Albany Democratic operatives who are running David Carlucci’s campaign,” says Vanderhoef campaign spokesman Bill Madden. “[Carlucci] has consistently distorted the facts and misled the public about Scott Vanderhoef’s record, and today’s claims were more of the same.”
Carlucci says that Vanderhoef has accepted over $173,000 in campaign contributions over the past five years from firms doing business with Rockland County.
Democratic campaign spokesperson Ana Tinsly cites Chapter 223 of Rockland County’s code for Campaign Finance Reform as the basis for this accusation:
- No individual, corporation, lobbyist or other entity doing business with the County of Rockland shall make a donation, in the aggregate, of more than $100 to any candidate during any primary, special or general election campaign.
- No candidate shall knowingly accept any such donation in excess of $100.
Last week, Vanderhoef accused Carlucci of accepting “tainted money” raised by NYS Senate Democratic leader John Sampson.
As the campaign draws to a close, both sides have been trading salvos on almost a daily basis. You can read the latest back and forth at LoHud’s Politics On The Hudson blog.
