Brown joined the pro-Cuomo PAC, Repair the Metropolis, as its chief working officer upon its launch in late February, weeks after resigning from Adams’ administration. As a part of that position, a supply mentioned, Brown has devised and overseen all day-to-day actions of the PAC, which is elevating and spending unprecedented quantities of cash to help Cuomo’s mayoral bid.
Beneath Adams, Browns served as chief working officer of his 2021 transition committee earlier than becoming a member of his administration as its chief of exterior affairs. In that publish, Brown was one of many mayor’s high liaisons to personal sectors like actual property and finance.
In line with evaluations of public disclosures, executives in those self same enterprise sectors have contributed greater than half of the practically $14 million Repair the Metropolis has raised to this point beneath Brown’s stewardship. That’s the biggest amount of money ever pulled in by a PAC for a single New York election.
Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks throughout a marketing campaign press convention/rally asserting help for a $20/hour minimal wage in Midtown Tuesday, Could 27, 2025 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Day by day Information)
Repair the Metropolis has emerged the only largest spender of the town’s 2025 election cycle — a growth elevating alarm from authorities ethics watchdogs.
Filings present the PAC had as of earlier this week already spent greater than $8.5 million on airing advertisements and sending out mailers plugging Cuomo’s bid to turn out to be mayor and attacking his high opponent, Zohran Mamdani.
Which means the PAC has shelled out greater than any of the candidates within the June 24 Democratic mayoral major can legally spend on their very own, as they’re constrained by the $7.9 million marketing campaign cap. That provides an plain monetary upper-hand to Cuomo, who’s constantly polling as the favourite.
And Repair the Metropolis is more likely to solely hold spending to advertise Cuomo’s candidacy within the closing days of the race, because it had raised greater than $13.7 million as of Friday morning, with extra donations coming in each day.
By regulation, the PAC can elevate and spend as a lot because it desires — with none limits on how donors may give — so long as it doesn’t coordinate any political actions with Cuomo’s marketing campaign.
“It’s absolutely undermining democracy, here and in other places of the United States, because you can put in an infinite amount of money — literally infinity — into a single candidate and there’s nothing New York City could do to stop it because the Supreme Court legalized it in 2014,” John Kaehny, government director of the Reinvent Albany watchdog group, mentioned, a reference to the choice that ended PAC contribution limits.
No different 2025 mayoral candidates have obtained the kind of exterior unbiased help Cuomo enjoys. New Yorkers for Decrease Prices, an excellent PAC boosting Mamdani, had in contrast solely raised about $400,000 as of the most recent submitting.
Liz Benjamin, Repair the Metropolis’s spokeswoman, praised Brown’s position in making the PAC probably the most dominant monetary drive within the 2025 mayoral race, saying she “cares deeply about New York City and its future.”
“She strongly believes that Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate for mayor who has advanced common sense proposals to make the city safer, successful and more affordable and possesses the experience necessary to get big things done,” Benjamin mentioned.
Brown, who labored with Wright within the nonprofit sector for years earlier than becoming a member of Adams’ administration, went on depart from Metropolis Corridor across the time of Wright’s resignation, Benjamin confirmed. Brown then formally departed in January. Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak mentioned Brown departed Metropolis Corridor on good phrases.
Sheena Wright, Mayor Adams’ second in command at Metropolis Corridor on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Day by day Information)
Along with Repair the Metropolis, one of many metropolis’s largest landlord lobbies has launched one other tremendous PAC dedicated to spend some $2.5 million on efforts to again Cuomo’s run.
The heavy PAC spending on Cuomo has helped offset troubles he’s experiencing together with his personal marketing campaign finance infrastructure. Many outstanding Adams donors this 12 months are as an alternative supporting Cuomo because the mayor confronted intense political fallout from his corruption indictment.
The town authorities’s elections watchdog company continues to withhold practically $1 million in public matching funds from Cuomo’s marketing campaign attributable to a suspicion it has coordinated spending actions with Repair the Metropolis.
However Repair the Metropolis isn’t impacted by the matching funds denial and its spending makes the withheld matching funds seem to be chump change, Kaehny argued.
“Because he has the super PACs, it does not matter,” he mentioned. “That’s the sad fact.”
With Josephine Stratman
Initially Revealed: June 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM EDT
