In the New York 14th congressional district, being it is deep blue, the person who wins the Democratic primary generally wins the fall election. So to hit back at hard-left Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), big donors to President Donald Trump’s campaigns are also giving thousands of dollars to Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, the Democrat running against AOC in her June 23rd primary.
No doubt other cash is being funneled to Caruso-Cabrera (the district seems to like double-barreled names) by Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democrat establishment. AOC has also caused headaches for them since she took office last year.
Top GOP and Trump donor, broadcaster Stanley Hubbard, who provided $175,000 to the pro-Trump Great America PAC, contributed the maximum $5,600 to Caruso-Cabrera, according the Federal Elections Commission. “Cowboy venture capitalist” Darren Blanton, who has invested $41,000 in pro-Trump campaign entities, also donated $5,600 to Caruso-Cabrera. Financier Nelson Patz, who held a very posh fundraising event at his Palm Beach home earlier this year to help raise $10 million for Trump and the RNC, also gave the max of $5,600 to Caruso-Cabrera’s campaign. Rounding out the list, mega-capitalist Walter Buckley, who donated $1 million to Trump’s Rebuild America Now Super PAC and $125,000 to Trump Victory fund, also maxed out with $5,600 to Caruso-Cabrera, AOC’s chief primary opponent.
Caruso-Cabrera is a former veteran business journalist and CNBC anchor. She is running as a moderate, pro-business Democrat to Ocasio-Cortez’s socialist firebrand in a congressional district that takes in the neighborhoods of Astoria, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights and College Point in Queens as well as Morris Park, Parkchester, City Island and Throgs Neck in The Bronx.
Asked about donations from Trump backers, Caruso-Cabrera spox and Democrat ace Hank Sheinkopf said, “AOC’s divisive behavior has created the national coalition supporting MCC [Michelle Caruso-Cabrera]. AOC continues to work against our presumptive Presidential nominee Joe Biden. AOC prefers to be with Donald Trump 13.7 percent of the time. Her vote on SALT [state and local taxes] was in lock step with the President, which hurts NY.” Wow. They’re hitting AOC for being too pro-Trump. That takes nerve.
During a NY1 TV debate last Friday night, all the contenders were asked if they would raise taxes on couples making at least $500,000. The three participants were AOC, Caruso-Cabrera, and Badrun Khan of the Jalalabad Association. Caruso-Cabrera said she opposed raising taxes “at all” during the fiscal crisis resulting from the pandemic. AOC said she would raise taxes even more. AOC was also dinged by Caruso-Cabrera for opposing the Amazon HQ project that would have brought thousands of jobs to the economically hard-pressed district. AOC is calling her main opponent a tool of the president. Yes, they both have nerve.
Divide and conquer is an old military and political gambit that can work given the right set of circumstances. Caruso-Cabrera is no conservative and will vote with her party the vast majority of the time. But she will likely not be as strident as AOC and will also probably not give her own party’s House leadership nightmares, as AOC has done in many ways. Her most annoying ploy, at least to Democrat House leadership, has been to support and raise money for the socialist primary opponents of House incumbents. She has mostly failed but does have one scalp on her Gucci belt.
It is hard to say who wants AOC gone the most, Trump or Pelosi. But in a couple of weeks both may be happy about the outcome in the New York’s 14th congressional district.
This piece was written by David Kamioner on June 9, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
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