Roger Hannigan Gilson
07/19/23
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro’s re-election campaign returned $2,000 two months after a group filed a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging the same sum had been illegally transferred from Molinaro’s former campaign for Dutchess County executive.
Marc for US, the congressman’s federal campaign committee, returned the funds to Molinaro for Dutchess on June 8, according to Molinaro’s July filing with the FEC. The FEC complaint, filed in April by End Citizens United, a group committed to “getting big money out of politics” and to “elect (ing) Democratic candidates,” according to its website, claimed the money was originally transferred from Molinaro for Dutchess in violation of federal campaign finance law.
Molinaro for Dutchess had transferred $1,000 to his federal campaign committee on March 31, 2021, according to FEC filings. Campaign disclosures with the New York Board of Elections show another $1,000 transferred from Molinaro for Dutchess to the federal committee on Oct. 1, 2021.
There is no record in Molinaro’s FEC filings showing the October transfer. Instead, the filings state Molinaro personally gave $1,000 to his federal committee the day before, on Sept. 30.
The FEC complaint stated that the state filings showed Molinaro’s local campaign transferred money to his federal campaign, and “the close proximity” in time between that transfer and the transfer Molinaro’s campaign reported was from Molinaro personally “suggests that the Federal Committee misreported the contributions on its FEC reports.”
End Citizens United spokesperson Bawadden Sayed claimed the return of $2,000 to the local committee amounted to Molinaro “shamefully admit(ting) wrongdoing in his own quarterly report.”
The local committee, which was designed to raise money for Molinaro’s next run for county executive, never fulfilled its stated purpose, since Molinaro decided to run for Congress instead.
“The Molinaro campaign has always and will continue to comply with all state and federal laws,” Molinaro campaign advisor Dave Catalfamo said in a statement responding to a Times Union inquiry.
###