Cuomo’s Campaign Got $200,000 From a Donor Given $62 Million in NY COVID $

Cuomo’s Campaign Got $200,000 From a Donor Who Was Paid $62 Million in NY COVID $

A New York Post analysis of Andrew Cuomo’s campaign filings reveals that individuals tied to Somos Healthcare Providers, a firm that received five emergency COVID contracts from the state Health Department totaling $62 million, have been top Cuomo donors over the past six months.

State comptroller records show the company won five contracts to administer COVID tests and vaccines at pop-up sites, including Yankee Stadium and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the first business Somos had ever done with the state.

State Board of Elections filings show that Somos executives and doctors in the Somos network gave more than $200,000 to Cuomo’s re-election campaign (just before the July 15 filing deadline) — roughly 10 percent of the $2.3 million it raised in the first half of the year.

This news comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report of major Cuomo donors abandoning him amid the state and federal probes of sexual- harassment allegations and the care-home-death coverup. That $2.3 million is Cuomo’s second-smallest fundraising haul of his decade-plus as governor.

Notably, Jeff Gural, a real-estate developer and casino operator who had given a total of $175,000 to Cuomo’s campaigns, told the Journal that he stopped giving because he doesn’t like the way Cuomo handles business and has felt threatened into donating in the past.

While the Somos people are denying any impropriety, John Kaehny, head of Reinvent Albany, a good-government watchdog, said it all “Looks like pay to play.”

We’re siding with Mr. Kaehny on this one. Color us skeptical any time an
outfit can muster up $200,000 from its various employees for campaign contributions, and then get $62 million in government contracts.

That’s a rate of return 310 times the original “investment”! Actually Kaehny was being kind. Somos paid relatively very little to play a hell of a lot.

Money talks in corrupt Cuomo’s NY. But hopefully not for too much longer.

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