Evan Vitale Consulting: McMahon campaign manager resigns amid consulting firm fines

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Top moments: Illuzzi and McMahon spar during DA debate Republican candidate for Staten Island District Attorney, Joan Illuzzi, and Democratic candidate, Michael McMahon, trade jabs during a televised debate sponsored by New York 1 News and the Staten Island Advance at the College of Staten Island.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Michael McMahon’s campaign manager is resigning after the consulting firm he works for was fined almost $26,000 for skirting campaign finance laws during two 2013 City Council campaigns.

The McMahon campaign announced Thursday that Jonathan Yedin, who has been running Democratic McMahon’s campaign for district attorney and is on leave from Manhattan-based political consulting company the Advance Group, would step down because of the announcement of the penalties.

According to the NYC Campaign Finance Board and the office of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the Advance Group, of which Yedin is vice president of campaigns and elections, was fined for coordinating what were supposed to be independent expenditures with two City Council campaigns in 2013.

The Campaign Finance Board (CFB) issued a report and assessed a $15,000 penalty on the company and the attorney general’s office assessed a $10,800 penalty.

“The Board determined that the Advance Group, acting as agent for an independent spender and two of its campaign clients, cooperated in expenditures reported to be independent,” the report found.

According to the CFB, the Advance Group orchestrated $16,000 in spending in 2013 by NYCLASS, an animal advocacy organization in favor of banning horse-drawn carriages in Manhattan. That money went to support the City Council races of Laurie Cumbo, Brooklyn, and Mark Levine, Manhattan, both of whom were clients of the Advance Group.

Yedin, a Democratic Brooklynite, worked on the 2013 Cumbo campaign.

NYCLASS’s spending for the candidates violated campaign finance laws because campaigns are prohibited from coordinating independent expenditures, as was the case here, and are considered in-kind contributions, and must be reported as such.

According to the CFB, the Advance Group “arranged mailers for one client, NYCLASS, which promoted the election of two of their campaign clients. CFB staff notified the Advance Group that such expenditures would be violations, yet the expenditures went forward.”

In December 2014, the CFB assessed $16,054 in penalties against NYCLASS for cooperating in expenditures reported to be independent, and $5,000 for each campaign “for material misrepresentation for reporting expenditures as independent when they were not.”

According to the CFB, the Advance Group was the general consultant for NYCLASS, and the two organizations shared an address. Advance Group President Scott Levenson was the NYCLASS political director and Chelsea Connor was the communications director for both organizations.

In announcing Yedin’s resignation from the McMahon campaign Thursday to return to the Advance Group, the McMahon campaign announced that senior adviser and communications director Ashleigh Owens would take over as campaign manager and Kevin Elkins would assume the role of spokesperson and communications director.

Elkins resigned this summer from his position as Comptroller Scott Stringer’s borough director for Staten Island to work on the McMahon campaign. He was previously the executive director of the Staten Island Democratic County Committee.

“Although, the civil matter settled today related to a campaign from 2013, Jonathan offered his resignation to avoid any appearance of impropriety and to ensure that this unrelated matter does not distract from the important issues facing Staten Island as we elect a new district attorney,” Owens said in a statement.

Yedin previously was McMahon’s Brooklyn district director in Congress and ran McMahon’s unsuccessful 2010 congressional campaign against Michael Grimm. He is also the former executive director of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee.

The Advance Group Communications Director Frank Baraff said in a statement, “Today’s determination comes after working together for the past 18 months to develop language which clarifies the rules and firewalls necessary to conduct future independent expenditures. In the 2013 campaign cycle, we instituted firewalls with true separation between candidates and the independent expenditure campaigns. Nevertheless, the firm has accepted an administrative fine, which amounts to far less than the legal fees to continue fighting this case. We recognize that the press attention given this matter resulted from the impact The Advance Group’s work had on New York City’s 2013 elections.”

Republican Joan Illuzzi’s spokesman, Nick Iacono, said, “Throughout this campaign, McMahon has tried to compensate for his utter lack of prosecutorial experience by touting his supposed administrative skills. First he hired an unscrupulous company to collect forged signatures of dead voters to get him on the ballot, now his campaign manager is resigning amidst findings of illegal campaign activity. We will leave it for the people of Staten Island to decide if Mr. McMahon possesses the ethical compass and administrative judgment to be the chief law enforcement officer in our borough.”

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