PAC With Pro-Trump Donors Funds Ads For Forest Hills Candidate

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — One of the City Council candidates running to represent Forest Hills is being boosted by a real estate-backed, pro-business super PAC, which has been criticized for its ties to supporters of President Donald Trump.

A disclosure last week revealed that a group called Common Sense NYC spent $30,876 in support of Lynn Schulman, one of the nine Democrats running to succeed longtime City Councilmember Karen Koslowitz in District 29.

Common Sense NYC’s outside spending — which amounts to more than $355,000 this year in support of 17 Council candidates — has been condemned by candidates in the city largely because the PAC’s top donors are Stephen Ross and Ron Lauder, a pair of billionaire businessmen who both supported President Donald Trump.

Candidates have no say in which outside groups choose to support them, though some may decide to publicly disavow the backing.

In Manhattan’s District 5 race on the Upper East Side, Commons Sense NYC spent $13,250 in support of City Council candidate Julie Menin, who “disavow[ed] all outside spending” in a statement, following the backlash from her rivals.

In Schulman’s case, Patch reached out to the candidate for comment, and she said:

“Independent expenditures are precisely that — independent. I did not seek, nor do I know anything about, them. I am very proud of my broad based grassroots campaign. I am running to represent the community, and nothing will ever change that.”

Schulman is the only candidate in Forest Hills whose campaign has received outside funding, both from Common Sense NYC and Labor Strong 2021 — a coalition of five labor unions, which also supported Menin.

The spending from both independent expenditure groups covered online ads and mailers on behalf of Schulman’s campaign.

One of the Common Sense NYC mailers said that Schulman has “real solutions for real problems,” including plans to “get crime under control,” “fix programs for homeless and mentally ill New Yorkers," and help businesses recover from the fallout of the pandemic, among other pledges.

Labor Strong 2021 described Schulman as a “candidate that puts working people first” in a series of mailers that trumpet her support for “good union jobs,” “affordable healthcare for all,” and public schools.

In addition to supporting 17 Council candidates, Common Sense NYC has spent more than $260,000 in negative campaign ads against seven City Council hopefuls — three of whom are running in Queens.

Common Sense NYC’s treasurer, Jeffrey Leb, told THE CITY that the group focused its funding efforts on opposing “socialist-related” candidates that it deems “too dangerous” to elect.

“We feel that they did not have the best vision or outlook for the city,” Leb told the site about the candidates that the group went negative on.

Common Sense NYC did not run ads in opposition to any candidates running against Schulman in District 29.