Tenants PAC: Oct. 4 2014 alert

 TENANT ALERT 
from Tenants Political Action Committee

October 4, 2014: The election for governor, lieutenant governor, 
state comptroller, attorney general, and all 213 seats in the 
state legislature is one month from today: Tuesday, November 4.

Tenants need to focus on the fight for control of the New York 
State Senate, because the fate of tenant legislation inevitably 
depends on the outcome. If the Democrats win a majority, 
we will have a chance to reverse the phaseout of our rent 
protection laws, and win pro-tenant reforms. If the Republicans 
are in control again, we are in serious trouble when the rent laws 
come up for renewal next June.

Tenants PAC has five priority races, and they are all north of New York City. Three Democratic incumbents have supported us even though they have no rent regulated housing in their districts, and they have all been targeted by the Republicans for defeat: Cecilia Tkaczyk (a former board member of Tenants & Neighbors and a long-time housing advocate) in a sprawling rural district west and south of Albany, Terry Gipson in the upper Hudson Valley, and Ted O’Brien in Rochester.

Until last week, it looked as if a fourth pro-tenant incumbent, George Latimer of Westchester County, was not going to need help. But now the GOP is spending big, attacking George on his support for gender expression and the state DREAM Act.

Our fifth priority is Justin Wagner, a Democrat running for an open seat in the lower Hudson Valley. Two years ago Justin, a former legal services attorney, almost won against Greg Ball, who is not running for re-election. Justin’s GOP opponent this time is a hyper-conservative. This seat is clearly a possible Democratic pickup.

Just two days ago the Real Estate Board of New York announced that it will use its phony “Jobs for New York” PAC to pump landlord money into defeating Tkaczyk, Gipson and Wagner. The next day REBNY reported raising $385K in 24 hours for this independent expenditure effort. This is clearly the tip of a landlord iceberg.

In the last few weeks we have raised almost $26,000. Many of you have been generous already, and we thank you. We need to raise another $10,000 in the next ten days to help elect these five pro-tenant candidates.

Can you help with the most generous contribution you can make at this time? While tenants can never match the amount of money landlords can throw at candidates, our targeted financial contributions have been crucial in past elections, and can make a difference in the next few weeks. Remember that we have no staff, and therefore very low overhead. Ninety-five percent of what we raise goes to candidates we support.

MATCHING GRANT: The Association of Tenants of Lincoln Towers made a generous $1,000 donation to Tenants PAC last week, and has offered to make another $1,000 donation if we can raise that amount by next Friday, October 10. So please do not delay.

Please mail your check, payable to Tenants PAC, to Tenants PAC, 277 Broadway, Suite 608, New York, N.Y. 10007. (Our recent mail delivery problems have been resolved. If you sent a contribution and it was returned, please let me know.)

You can make a secure on-line contribution at www.tenantspac.org.  Contributions to Tenants PAC are not deductible from federal income tax.

Thanks for you support, and on to victory. Please email me if you have questions.

In solidarity,

Michael McKee

Treasurer

Tenants Political Action Committee

mmckee@tenantspac.org

P.S. Tenants PAC enthusiastically endorses Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli for re-election. Both have been very strong supporters of tenants. Tenants PAC has not made any endorsement for governor.