Centrist super PAC to spend $100K on boosting NYC Councilwoman Linda Lee as her Queens race tightens
A centrist super PAC founded by a veteran New York lobbyist plans to pour tens of thousands of dollars into boosting City Councilwoman Linda Lee’s reelection campaign this month amid signs that her race is tightening.
Lee, a Democrat representing a section of eastern Queens that includes Bayside, Fresh Meadows and Hollis, is squaring off in her June 27 primary against Steve Behar, a former City Council staffer, and community activist Rubaiya Rahman.
Jeff Leb, a former Council official-turned-lobbyist who has been heavily involved in super PAC spending in recent local elections, told the Daily News this week that one of his groups, Future NYC, found via recent independent polling that Lee’s race is likely to be “one of the closer ones in this Council primary cycle.” The polling showed the most formidable threat to Lee is Behar, Leb added.
To that end, Leb said Future NYC will launch a $100,000 campaign this week to promote Lee’s candidacy with mailers, robocalls, phone banking and radio and digital ads.
“Linda Lee, Preventing Crime & Protecting Families,” reads a Future NYC flyer provided by Leb that will start circulating in Lee’s 23rd City Council District this week.
Leb, whose groups have a track record of backing moderate Democratic and centrist Republican candidates for elected office, said a chunk of the $100,000 political buy will also go toward distributing mailers and other campaign material “educating the public about who Steve Behar really is.”
Leb was referencing news articles from the 2021 Council election cycle, when Behar also unsuccessfully ran for Lee’s seat.
As first reported by The News, Behar raised eyebrows during that race as social media posts surfaced of him cracking a joke about rape and taking a sexist dig at Lee, claiming her candidacy boiled down to “Vote for Me I’m a Mommy!”
“Is this the type of person that you want representing you?” Leb told The News this week.
Lee declined to comment Tuesday. Behar did not return a request for comment.
By law, Lee cannot coordinate political efforts with Leb’s group, which as an independent expenditure organization is able to raise and spend more money than a regular campaign can.
Leb said Future NYC has raised more than $500,000 that it expects to shell out promoting Council candidates in this month’s cycle. He declined to name any of the group’s contributors, adding that won’t be disclosed until Campaign Finance Board filings are due next month.
Another candidate Leb’s group plans to spend $100,000 on supporting is Democratic Queens Councilwoman Lynn Schulman, as first reported by Jewish Insider last week.
Leb has operated a half-dozen super PACs in recent election cycles, promoting Council and state Legislature candidates.
None of the PACs were directly involved in the 2021 mayoral campaign, but Leb said Mayor Adams has been supportive of their efforts, including by attending a fund-raiser one of his groups held in downtown Manhattan in early 2022.
“The mayor has been supportive of our IEs,” Leb said, using an acronym for independent expenditures.
All Council districts are up for election in the June 27 primaries, but only a handful of them feature competitive showdowns. Early voting starts this Saturday.
This month’s primaries mark just the second city election cycle where ranked-choice voting will be used to call a winner if a leading candidate nets less than 50% of total ballots cast.
In 2021, the first time the embattled city Board of Elections oversaw a ranked-choice-voting election cycle, a major snafu ensued after the panel accidentally added tens of thousands of “test” ballots to an official count.
