Real Estate PAC Spends Big For Donovan Richards' Boro Prez Bid

QUEENS, NY — A political action committee founded by the real estate industry's most powerful lobbying group is spending into the six digits in a last-ditch effort to propel Donovan Richards to the Queens borough presidency.

Jobs for New York, a PAC founded by the Real Estate Board of New York and funded by major real estate developers, spent nearly $104,000 in just two days last week on mailers, an online advertisement and phone calls to support Richards.

Richards, who represents southeastern Queens in the City Council, is competing against four other candidates in Tuesday's election for the Democratic nominee for borough president.

“As campaigns are not permitted to coordinate with independent expenditures we would direct inquiries there,” Tom Musich, Richards' campaign spokesperson, told the Queens Daily Eagle in response to the PAC's efforts.

The Jobs for New York-funded mailers include one that claims rival candidate City Council Member Costa Constantinides "failed Queens co-op and condo owners" by proposing a "costly new energy tax on homeowners," as first reported by the Eagle.

The so-called "energy tax" appears to be a reference to Constantinides' 2019 bill requiring large buildings to reduce their carbon footprint — a bill that Richards co-sponsored.

Constantinides' campaign declined to comment.

Major real estate players have largely backed Richards in the race, which determines who fills the position vacated by Melinda Katz when she took office as Queens district attorney this year.

Richards has gotten campaign contributions from developers involved in the Willets Point project and the Flushing Creek rezoning plan, according to the Queens Daily Eagle, and REBNY President James Whelan has encouraged board members to support Richards.

Richards also received the endorsement of the Queens County Democratic Party.

Borough presidents oversee major land-use decisions and appoint members of community boards and the City Planning Commission, which makes the position a particularly consequential one to the real estate industry.

Katz, who was first elected as Queens borough president in 2014, has close ties to the real estate industry and spent three years as a lobbyist advising developers on land use and zoning.