Why hasn’t the Dinowitz family rejected gambling super PAC support?

To the editor,

Recently, Council member Eric Dinowitz liked a social media advertisement supporting his father, Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz, that was paid for by New York Future, an outside political spending group reportedly funded in part by DraftKings and FanDuel.

On one level, this may seem trivial. Family members support each other politically all the time. But Assembly member Dinowitz is not just another legislator: he chairs the Assembly’s Codes Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Albany.

That is precisely why voters should be concerned when gambling money enters local elections through opaque outside groups.

This is not about whether gambling itself is moral. Many New Yorkers, myself included, occasionally participate in fantasy sports or other forms of legal gambling. The issue is whether corporations with major financial interests in Albany should be spending heavily to support powerful lawmakers and whether elected officials should publicly celebrate that support.

The fact that Council member Dinowitz served as a delegate candidate for Elizabeth Warren in 2020, when she was one of the country’s most outspoken critics of super PACs and big money influence in politics, adds an extra layer of confusion for me as to why he might embrace such ads.

New York already has a public matching funds system designed to help candidates compete without relying on massive outside spending. Both Assembly member Dinowitz and his challenger, Morgan Evers, qualified for the maximum values of those funds. So why are gambling companies still flooding voters’ feeds and mailboxes with ads on behalf of one candidate?

And more importantly: why has no one involved publicly rejected that support?

On the Upper West Side, Assembly candidate Eli Northrup publicly denounced this same super PAC spending in his race. Assembly member Dinowitz has served in office for more than 30 years. He understands exactly what these groups are and how they operate. If he believed this spending was inappropriate, he could say so.

This June, I will support Morgan Evers because I believe voters, not gambling companies or outside political spenders, should decide who represents our community in Albany.

AARON STAYMAN

Aaron Stayman recently resigned from The Unity Democratic Club treasury, and is a donor to the Morgan Evers campaign.