In the final week of the election campaign, Westchester business owner Glenn Pacchiana watched the candidate polling numbers and worried. Pacchiana, principal at Thalle Industries in Briarcliff Manor and a director of The Business Council of Westchester, has put his own money and fundraising effort behind Republicans running for state senate seats and comptroller. They trailed incumbents by double-digit figures in the survey polls.
“I think this is the most critical election for New York in 50 years,” said Pacchiana, who contributed $19,000 to the campaigns of Scarsdale residents Bob Cohen, a real estate construction company owner seeking the 37th Senate District seat, and Harry Wilson, a former hedge fund manager and member of President Obama”™s auto industry task force who wants to bring his financial management expertise to the state comptroller”™s office and the comptroller-controlled state pension fund. “If we don”™t get this straightened out, forget it. We are at the beginning of a big fiscal crisis,” Pacchiana said.
Business community senses urgency
On the eve of the election, that view and sense of urgency are widely shared in the business community of Westchester and the state. An entrenched, dysfunctional state Legislature, the unrelievedly dismal economy and a political and regulatory climate seen as unfriendly to business have sparked business”™s participation in the electoral process “at a level that”™s never been seen before in this state,” said Mike Elmendorf, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in Albany.
“Business”™s voice has been suppressed,” said commercial real estate broker Christopher O”™Callaghan, board chairman of The Business Council of Westchester. He and Pacchiana recently co-hosted a breakfast that raised $20,000 for Wilson”™s underdog campaign. “The business community is so much more engaged than I”™ve seen in my career,” said the Cushman & Wakefield broker.
The impending election and widely shared frustration have forged uncommon alliances among upstate and downstate business groups ”“ though it has not united Westchester”™s two largest business organizations in common cause. It has prompted some business advocacy groups to break with past practice with respect to campaign donations and candidate endorsements. Yet the business community”™s more vocal and active engagement in electoral politics has not been matched by any noticeable spike in financial contributions from individuals and companies, according to several business leaders and executives.
Fundraising a challenge for businesses
“For business organizations, fundraising is always going to be a challenge,” said Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State Inc., “unless you”™re Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber.” He was referring to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas J. Donohue and a recent New York Times report of publicly undisclosed, multimillion-dollar corporate donations to the national chamber and its record spending in the midterm Congressional elections largely to support Republican candidates. “The business community has very different restrictions in New York state in raising money for New York state candidates than unions,” Adams said.
“It”™s a tough economy in which to raise money,” Adams added. “Small business owners, they”™re hurtin”™, and to get them to donate money, it”™s a challenge.”
For the first time in its 30-year history, the state Business Council this season has endorsed state candidates, including Andrew Cuomo for governor. Of 23 legislative candidates endorsed, only one is a Democrat. Endorsements were based in part on candidates”™ support of the Business Council”™s “Five to Survive” platform of reforms to steer New York back on the road to economic growth and jobs creation. “We as an organization said we could no longer sit on our hands,” Adams said of the policy change.
Business Council takes a side
Though it has not publicly endorsed candidates, The Business Council of Westchester also departed from its nonpartisan tradition in this election year, a move that drew criticism from members and from at least two Democratic candidates angered at the group”™s partisan support.
In June, Business Council CEO Marsha Gordon in a fundraising letter informed members of a new strategy to ally with state Sen. Dean Skelos, the Senate minority leader from Long Island, and the Republican Party to restore Senate control to the party with its pro-business agenda. The letter solicited campaign donations for three Republican candidates. The backlash from members upset at the council”™s newly partisan tack led Gordon to issue an apology and withdraw the fundraising initiative.
“I think we were probably ahead of the game,” Gordon recently said of that aborted strategy. “We were the first out of the box.” By other donation routes, “I think many of our members have been generous to candidates,” she said.
In Harrison, the Business Council”™s long-inactive political arm, the Golden Apple Business Action Committee, in late September contributed $1,000 to the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee, according to financial disclosure filings at the state Board of Elections. In Albany, the state Business Council PAC Inc. at the same time donated $20,000 to Senate Republican campaigns.
WCA stays clears of endorsements
The Westchester County Association has steered away from candidate endorsements in its ongoing Call to Action campaign to educate voters on reforms needed in Albany and to pledge candidates to a reform agenda. Like the state Business Council and NFIB”™s state office, the WCA”™s Call to Action website lists incumbents”™ voting records on legislation affecting businesses.
“We truly believe our power is in neutrality,” said WCA President William M. Mooney Jr. “Once you start endorsing people, you start dividing people.”
Both WCA and Business Council leaders pointed to Cuomo”™s reform agenda as evidence the business community”™s voice has been heard in Albany.
Gordon said Cuomo in building his gubernatorial policy has made use of the state Business Council”™s “Five to Survive” agenda for economic development. WCA Chairman Alfred B. DelBello noted Cuomo”™s recent interview with the New York Times in which he said he will try to turn the state”™s historically weak business lobby into his strong ally to counter the state”™s powerful and well-financed labor unions. “That”™s the first time I ever saw anybody say that,” said DelBello, who served one term as lieutenant governor under the candidate”™s father, Mario Cuomo.
“I think the Call to Action program has had a profound impact on incumbents,” Mooney said. “They”™re all talking about reform now.”
Gordon said both federal and state candidates “are hearing that the business community is concerned. I think what we need to see now is whether they really listened.”
Not much will change in Westchester
“It”™s a very interesting election, but I don”™t think things are going to change that much,” DelBello said of election results that have long favored Democrats in Westchester and much of the state. “Here (in Westchester) I don”™t think we”™re going to see any real changes.”
Both WCA and Business Council leaders said their reform effort will not end with the election. “Once the elections are held, we have to very strongly stick to the agenda that we all set out,” said Gordon. Whether Democrat or Republican, “It”™s going to be more important that the people that are elected address business issues,” she said.
