Reclaim New York

Last updated

Reclaim New York
Founded2013
Founders Robert Mercer, Rebekah Mercer, Steven Bannon
Location
Rebekah Mercer, Jennifer Mercer, Leonard Leo

Reclaim New York is a government watchdog group in New York State. It was founded in 2013 by hedge fund manager and computer scientist Robert Mercer, his daughter Rebekah Mercer, and Breitbart co-founder Steve Bannon, to track what they saw as excessive public spending. [1] [2] [3] [4] They were soon joined by conservative lawyer and legal activist Leonard Leo, [5] and Bush-administration veteran Tom Basile. [6] Reclaim New York describes itself as a non-partisan good government group. Most leadership roles have been filled by individuals with connections to the Republican party or other conservative groups. [6] It has been accused by state Democrats and liberal groups of being a vehicle for the Mercers to achieve their political goals. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [6] As per its tax filings, Mercer provides nearly all of Reclaim New York's funding. [8] It shared office space in New York City with data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica, which also received investments from the Mercer family. [13] [14] Reclaim New York, a 501(c)(3), [15] launched a lobbying arm in 2016, the 501(c)(4) Reclaim New York Initiative. [16] [17] Reclaim New York downsized its operations in 2019, which was attributed by its opponents to its lack of success in influencing state politics. [18]

Reclaim New York used a strategy of filing Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for information about government spending, in order to publicize the difficulty of obtaining public documents and uncover spending it felt to be wasteful, abusive, or fraudulent. It makes these requests itself and trains citizens to make their own requests. Reclaim has been criticized[ by whom? ] for sowing distrust of the government and abusing the open-records civic process by intimidation. [19] In 2014, it filed 250 requests with various government groups in Long Island, and more in the rest of the state. It sued at least 11 government groups including the Elmont School District and Peekskill City School District for failing to comply with their requests. [20] [21] [6] [22] In its suit against a village in Rockland County, the village asked that it not be required to pay Reclaim New York's legal fees, citing its wealthy donors compared to the village budget. The judge agreed what the village called the "Mercer Mercy Rule". [6]

Reclaim New York has sponsored other initiatives in the state. It opposed various bills in the state legislature [8] [23] and the renaming of the Tappan Zee Bridge after Governor Mario Cuomo. [12] On Long Island, it has criticized a wind power initiative in East Hampton [24] and tax rates on Long Island. [25] It was also part of the unsuccessful effort to stop a new hospital from being built in Utica. [26] [27]

As of 2021, Reclaim New York's board of directors includes: [28]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizens United (organization)</span> Conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization

Citizens United is a conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization in the United States founded in 1988. In 2010, the organization won a U.S. Supreme Court case known as Citizens United v. FEC, which struck down as unconstitutional a federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from making expenditures in connection with federal elections. The organization's president and chairman is David Bossie.

Leonard Anthony Leo is an American lawyer and conservative legal activist. He was the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society and is currently, along with Steven Calabresi, the co-chairman of the organization's board of directors. Leo has been instrumental in building a network of influential conservative legal groups funded mostly by anonymous donors, including The 85 Fund and Concord Fund, which serve as funding hubs for affiliated political nonprofits. He assisted Clarence Thomas in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and led campaigns to support the nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Astorino</span> American politician (born 1967)

Robert Patrick Astorino is an American politician, radio producer, and television host who was the county executive of Westchester County, New York from 2010 to 2017. He was the Republican nominee for Governor of New York in 2014. Astorino is one of the founders of 1050 AM ESPN Radio in New York City; he served as WEPN's executive producer, executive producer of The Michael Kay Show, a host on the MSG Network, as well as the first program director for Sirius Satellite Radio's "The Catholic Channel".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Tenney</span> American politician & attorney (born 1961)

Claudia L. Tenney is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 24th congressional district since 2023. Previously, she represented the 22nd district from 2017 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2023, and sat in the New York State Assembly from 2011 to 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Tenney is an outspoken supporter of former president Donald Trump.

Robert Leroy Mercer is an American hedge fund manager, computer scientist, and political donor. Mercer was an early artificial intelligence researcher and developer and is the former co-CEO of the hedge fund company Renaissance Technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Bannon</span> American media executive and political strategist (born 1953)

Stephen Kevin Bannon is an American media executive, political strategist, and former investment banker. He served as the White House's chief strategist for the first seven months of U.S. president Donald Trump's administration. He is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News and previously served on the board of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government Accountability Institute</span> Conservative conspiracy theory think tank

The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) is a conservative think tank located in Tallahassee, Florida. GAI was founded in 2012 by Peter Schweizer and Steve Bannon with funding from Robert Mercer and family. Schweizer serves as the group's president.

Elliott B. Broidy is a disgraced former American lobbyist and businessman. From 2005 to 2008, he served as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). In 2009, he was convicted in a public corruption and bribery case in New York.

The Mercer Family Foundation is a private grant-making foundation in the United States. As of 2013, it had $37 million in assets. The foundation is run by Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of computer scientist and hedge fund manager Robert Mercer.

SCL Group was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries Cambridge Analytica and Crow Business Solutions MENA. It was founded in 1990 by Nigel Oakes, who served as its CEO. The company described itself as a "global election management agency". The company's leaders and owners had close ties to the Conservative Party, the British royal family, British military, United States Department of Defense and NATO and its investors included some of the largest donors to the Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge Analytica</span> 2013–2018 British political consulting firm

Cambridge Analytica Ltd. (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intelligence company and self-described "global election management agency" SCL Group by long-time SCL executives Nigel Oakes, Alexander Nix and Alexander Oakes, with Nix as CEO. The well-connected founders had contact with, among others, the British Conservative Party, royal family, and military. The firm maintained offices in London, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The company closed operations in 2018 in the course of the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal, although firms related to both Cambridge Analytica and its parent firm SCL still exist.

Rebekah Mercer is an American heiress and Republican political donor, and director of the Mercer Family Foundation.

Make America Number 1 is a right-wing super PAC that supported the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election. During the primary campaign, the super PAC was known as Keep the Promise I. In the general election, it informally termed itself Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC, but was not allowed to officially use this term and chose the name Make America Number 1. The PAC is run by Rebekah Mercer, the second daughter of its largest donor Robert Mercer.

Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum is a debated subject and remains unproven, though multiple sources argue evidence exists demonstrating that the Russian government attempted to influence British public opinion in favour of leaving the European Union. Investigations into this subject have been undertaken by the UK Electoral Commission, the UK Parliament's Culture Select Committee and Intelligence and Security Committee, and the United States Senate. "The Russia Report" published by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in July 2020 did not specifically address the Brexit campaign, but it concluded that Russian interference in UK politics is commonplace. It also found substantial evidence that there had been interference in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Nix</span> British businessman

Alexander James Ashburner Nix is a British businessman, the former CEO of Cambridge Analytica and a former director of the Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) Group, a behavioural research and strategic communications consultancy, leading its elections division. Cambridge Analytica and its parent SCL were involved in psychological warfare operations for the British military and involved in influencing hundreds of elections globally; Cambridge Analytica helped Leave.EU with its Brexit campaign, according to both Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica staff. The company was also engaged by the Ted Cruz and Donald Trump campaigns during the 2016 US presidential election. The company also ran Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2018)</span>

This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of post-election transition following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections</span>

This is a chronology of significant events in 2016 and 2017 related to the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies during the Trump presidential transition and the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016, this article begins on November 8 and ends with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizens of the American Republic</span>

Citizens of the American Republic (COAR) was an American 501(c)(4) non-profit organization founded by Steve Bannon in 2017.

The 85 Fund, also known as the Honest Elections Project, and formerly known as the Judicial Education Project, is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington D.C. It is among a network of conservative organizations associated with Leonard Leo, a longtime prominent figure in the Federalist Society, that are funded mostly by anonymous donors. The 85 Fund had revenue of over $65 million in 2020 and, with the Concord Fund, acts as a funding hub for other organizations in the Leo network.

America First Policies is an organization created following the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017 to promote the America First policy agenda of his administration. It was founded by Trump campaign people including Nick Ayers, Rick Gates, and Brad Parscale.

References

  1. ↑ Gold, Matea (September 13, 2016). "The rise of GOP mega-donor Rebekah Mercer". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on November 14, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  2. ↑ Gregory Zuckerman; Keach Hagey; Scott Patterson; Rebecca Ballhaus (January 8, 2017). "Meet the Mercers: A Quiet Tycoon and His Daughter Become Power Brokers in Trump's Washington". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  3. ↑ Schouten, Fredreka (March 7, 2017). "Who are mega-donors Bob and Rebekah Mercer, and why are they influential?". USA Today . Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  4. ↑ Matea Gold (March 17, 2017). "The Mercers and Stephen Bannon: How a populist power base was funded and built". Washington Post. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  5. ↑ Robert O'Harrow Jr.; Shawn Boburg (May 21, 2019). "A conservative activist's behind-the-scenes campaign to remake the nation's courts". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Robert Lewis (February 19, 2018). "Trump's army battles for New York". WRVO Public Media. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  7. ↑ Campbell, Jon (November 9, 2017). "How Robert Mercer impacts local battles in New York". The Journal News . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 Galbraith, Rob (May 24, 2017). "Mercer family front groups attack universal healthcare bill in New York State". Eyes on the Ties. Retrieved July 24, 2021.[ unreliable source? ]
  9. ↑ Lovett, Kenneth (December 30, 2018). "Reclaim New York offering supporters dinner and hotel for Albany lobbying trip". NY Daily News . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  10. ↑ Campbell, Jon (November 9, 2017). "How Robert Mercer impacts local battles in New York". The Journal News. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  11. ↑ Feldman, Victor (August 26, 2017). "'Reclaim New York': Mercer-funded, Bannon-guided campaign sows distrust of local government". The Berkshire Edge. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  12. 1 2 Karlin, Rick (July 11, 2017). "Poll: Downstate residents dislike naming Tappan Zee bridge for Mario Cuomo". Times Union. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  13. ↑ Cunningham-Cook, Matthew (January 14, 2021). "Arizona GOP Chair Urged Violence at the Capitol. The Mercers Spent $1.5 Million Supporting Her". The Intercept . Retrieved July 24, 2021. Robert Mercer was a major investor in Cambridge Analytica, which mined data on behalf of the Trump campaign and shared office space with Mercer-funded conservative advocacy group Reclaim New York.
  14. ↑ "Newly Published Cambridge Analytica Documents Show Unlawful Support for Trump in 2016". Campaign Legal Center. Retrieved March 25, 2024. emails indicate that Cambridge Analytica staff understood that they were ultimately working for the Mercers; in fact, the firm's New York office was shared with another Mercer venture, Reclaim New York. Cambridge Analytica staff also understood that Mercer-backed super PACs were expected to contract with the firm.
  15. ↑ "Reclaim New York | Forest Hills, NY | Cause IQ". www.causeiq.com. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  16. ↑ "Trump's Army Battles for New York | WNYC | New York Public Radio". WNYC. Retrieved March 25, 2024. In 2016, a related organization called Reclaim New York Initiative incorporated as what's technically called a "social welfare organization." Such organizations have earned the moniker "dark money" groups because they can typically shield the names of donors from the public… It's through this entity that Reclaim does its lobbying. Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was a founding director of Reclaim New York Initiative. Disclosure forms filed with New York state show Robert Mercer provided $70,855 in March last year to launch the lobbying unit.
  17. ↑ "Reclaim New York Initiative | Forest Hills, NY | Cause IQ". www.causeiq.com. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  18. ↑ Yancey Roy (July 10, 2019). "Mercer-backed group downsizes NY operations". Newsday. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  19. ↑ Feldman, Victor (August 26, 2017). "'Reclaim New York': Mercer-funded, Bannon-guided campaign sows distrust of local government". The Berkshire Edge. Retrieved March 25, 2024. "They have taken a great tool, FOIL, and weaponized it… wanting to know how your government spends tax money is perfectly fine… They try to get as many people to file FOIL requests and overburden small school boards and municipalities. They send hundreds, if not thousands, of these requests and they know that the respondents often can't reply to all of them on time. When a school board refuses to respond, or fails to do so in the allotted 20 days, Reclaim sues them. It's a way of intimidating and crippling local governments, not actually holding them accountable."{{cite web}}: no-break space character in |quote= at position 56 (help)
  20. ↑ Steve Smirti (June 15, 2016). "Elmont School District sued by transparency group". Nassau Herald . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  21. ↑ Higgins, Lee (November 18, 2016). "Peekskill defends against lawsuit by Reclaim New York". The Journal News. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  22. ↑ Karlin, Rick (January 2, 2018). "Groups sue after waiting months for docs related to ad campaign". Times Union . Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  23. ↑ Lovett, Kenneth (December 7, 2018). "New York good government groups hail decision to tie legislative pay raises to reforms". NY Daily News. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Critics Ask: How Much for Wind Power?". East Hampton Star . June 13, 2019. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  25. ↑ Mike Xirinachs (October 14, 2015). "Reclaim New York Report: Long Island Cost Of Living 'Alarming'". CBS New York . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  26. ↑ Payne Horning (February 21, 2018). "Reclaim NY active in downtown Utica hospital debate". WRVO Public Media. Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  27. ↑ Roth, Amy Neff (October 27, 2020). "Mohawk Valley Health System's downtown Utica hospital has a new completion date". Observer-Dispatch . Retrieved July 24, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Reclaim New York" . Retrieved July 22, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.