The pro-Andrew Cuomo super PAC Fix The City raised a whopping $1.26 million in the past week alone — the largest weekly haul for the mayoral candidate to a super PAC since the Dem primary, sources said.
The massive take included $500,000 from billionaire William Lauder, the former executive chairman of Estee Lauder perfume and cosmetic companies.
Estee heir Jack Zinterhofer, the grandson of William’s uncle Ron Lauder, kicked in another $250,000.
John Hess, former chairman and CEO of the energy company Hess Corporation, shelled out $500,000, too.
The DNA testing company Natra Inc., meanwhile contributed $10,000.
The infusion of hefty contributions to such super PACs — which are independent from candidates’ campaigns, freeing them up by law to raise much larger sums from individual donors — could help prop up the ex-governor for the final stretch of his general-election campaign for mayor.
It’s unclear how much radical leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and trailing hopeful Mayor Eric Adams netted from their super PACs last week, as the figures are not typically released till Monday. Cuomo and Adams are running as independents.
In terms of regular campaign fundraising, Mamdami trounced his rivals by netting $1.05 million, more than double the $507,000 that Cuomo raised, in the past five weeks. Adams raised $460,000, while GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa raked in $407,000.
It was only known that the pro-Mamdani super PAC New Yorkers for Lower Costs last week received a $250,000 donation from philanthropist Elizabeth Simons, daughter of the late billionaire hedge-fund investor James Simons.
“The only candidate who can defeat Mamdani is Andrew Cuomo,” said Fix The City Chairman Steve M. Cohen, a longtime Cuomo confidante.
“A lot of our donors will come back. Over the next 30 days to 45 days, you will see the donors who supported us during the primary and new donors supporting Andrew Cuomo,” he said.
There is no contribution cap on how much a donor can give to an independently run super Pac, so Fix The City could help keep Cuomo competitive in the money game with fat-cat contributions, now that he is an underdog after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
Fix The City raised more than $25 million to help Cuomo during the primary, including $8 million from billionaire Mike Bloomberg, the former three-term New York City mayor.
It remains to be seen whether the pro-Cuomo group will replicate that figure as the former governor runs on an independent ballot line against the chosen Democratic nominee.
Fix The City will devote more resources on getting out the vote in the general election to compete, an insider said.
As during the primary, the Cuomo forces will have to compete with Mamdani’s thousands of young volunteers and backing from the infrastructure of the Democratic Socialists of America. Mamdani also has the support of the Working Families Party, and many labor unions that had backed Cuomo switched to the socialist.
The Cuomo super PAC intends to partner with neighborhood groups who do not want a democratic socialist as mayor and see the ex-gov as the viable alternative.
During an interview Sunday, Cuomo said the race is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party as well as the mayoralty.
“I’m a Democrat running on an independent line. Zohran [Mamdani] is a socialist running on the Democratic line,” Cuomo said on the “Cats Roundtable” 770 WABC radio.
He told host John Catsimatidis, “I’m not a socialist.
“I’m not against business. I’m not against corporations. I don’t know how you can be a socialist leader in New York City and be anti-business and have New York City survive. New York City is all about business … How can you be a mayor of New York who’s anti-business? I do not get it.”
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