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Unprecedented $60,000 Dark Money Infusion for New Rochelle Mayoral Candidate

Yadira Ramos-Herbert Reaps Mysterious Windfall

Robert Cox

04 Jun 2023 — 15 min read

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (June 5, 2023) — The most recent campaign finance report filed by Friends of Yadira, the Campaign Committee for New Rochelle Mayoral Candidate Yadira Ramos-Herbert, contains a bombshell: $60,000 from a single source on May 18.

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The money, a direct transfer from the Westchester County Democratic Committee, was listed in Ramos-Herbert’s 32-day pre-primary campaign finance report filed on May 26, 2023, and made public late last week.

The New York State Campaign Financial Disclosure Calendar has 3 Report Periods:

32 Day Pre-Primary (Cut off 5/22, due 5/26)
11 Day Pre-Primary (Cut off 6/12, due 6/16)
July 2023 Periodic (Cut off 7/13, due 7/17)

Friends of Yadira reported less than $50,000 in monetary contributions in the 32 Day Pre-Primary, so a $60,000 direct transfer more than doubled her campaign war chest in one day.

The Westchester County Democratic Committee has failed to file its required campaign finance disclosure forms, so there is no way to know who contributed to the WCDC with money earmarked for Yadira Ramos-Herbert — and the WCDC will not say.

Suzanne Berger, Chairperson of the Westchester County Democratic Committee, has ignored repeated requests for information as to why the WCDC 32-day pre-primary campaign finance report was not filed by the May 26 deadline, whether the report exists, when the report will be filed and, if so, when.

The $60,000 is, in effect, dark money.

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Yadira Ramos-Herbert is Mayor Noam Bramson’s hand-picked successor. He has been intimately involved in her campaign: co-hosting a fundraiser with his wife, Catie Stern, for Ramos-Herbert on May 7; promoting her on his social media platforms, appearing with her on the campaign trail at meet-and-greets, functions and fundraisers.

The invitation was made in the name of New Rochelle’s first couple, but the event was hosted by Stephanie Tomei, at her house at 70 Aviemore Drive.

Tomei is, among other things, the Executive Director of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence and a member of the Board of the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation.

More on that later.

The money appears to be a large cash influx orchestrated by New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson, possibly from real estate developers doing business in New Rochelle. It is not certain where the money came from because the putative source, the Westchester County Democratic Committee, has refused to explain how they obtained the cash.

Like Berger, Ramos-Herbert and Bramson did not respond to emails seeking clarification.

Whatever the source, a direct transfer of $60,000 is an unprecedented sum for the WCDC.

Ramos-Herbert has reportedly struggled to raise money and pay consultants, despite the full-throated support of outgoing Mayor Noam Bramson, and the endorsement of the New Rochelle Democratic Party.

As of May 26, Friends of Yadira received just $47,915 in monetary contributions since the primary began in January. This despite numerous fundraisers and loads of endorsements from political parties, organizations and elected officials throughout Westchester. She has failed to gain traction.

She received the $60,000 transfer on May 18, just days before the campaign finance filing deadline.

Campaign Finance records for the Westchester County Democratic Committee, from 2018 to 2022, highlight the unusual nature and scope of the $60,000 Direct Transfer to Ramos-Herbert’s campaign.

The Westchester County Democratic Committee has made just 8 previous direct transfers since 2018.

Anthony Scarpino, who ran for Westchester County District Attorney in a 2020 primary, received two contributions to Friends of Anthony A Scarpino Jr totaling $50,099.

Tyrae Woodson-Samuels, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 13 in 2021, received a contribution of $500 to Friends of Tyrae Woodson-Samuels.

Christopher A. Johnson, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 16 in 2021, received a contribution of $500 to Johnson for Westchester.

José Alvarado, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 17 in 2022, received a contribution of $500 to Alverado for Westchester.

Erika Pierce, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 2 in 2022, received a contribution of $500 to Friends of Erika Pierce.

David Vinjamuri, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 3 in 2022, received a contribution of $500 to Vinjamuri For Westchester.

MaryJane Shimsky, a former Westchester County Legislator, who ran for New York Assembly in District 92 in 2022, received a contribution of $500 to Shimsky for Assembly.

The Westchester County Democratic Committee made 8 previous payments & expenditures on behalf of campaigns since 2018.

George Latimer, who ran for Westchester County Executive in 2017, received an expenditure of $25,000 on behalf of Latimer For Westchester.

Christopher A. Johnson, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 16 in 2017, received an expenditure of $1,000 on behalf of Friends Of Christopher Johnson.

Damon Maher, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 10 in 2017, received an expenditure of $1,000 on behalf of Friends Of Damon Maher.

Kitley Covill, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 2 in 2017, received an expenditure of $1,000 on behalf of Friends Of Kitley Covill.

Corazon Pineda-Isaac, who ran for Yonkers City Council in 2018, received an expenditure of $500 on behalf of Corazon For Office.

Vedat Gashi, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 4 in 2019, received an expenditure of $2,000 on behalf of Gashi For Legislature.

Colin Smith, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 1 in 2019, received an expenditure of $2,000 on behalf of Friends Of Colin Smith.

Catherine Borgia, who ran for Westchester County Legislator in District 9 in 2019, received an expenditure of $2,000 on behalf of Friends Of Catherine Borgia.

All 16 direct transfers or payments & expenditures paid out by the Westchester County Democratic Committee as checks, except for two paid out by debit card: David Vinjamuri ($500) and Yadira Ramos-Herbert ($60,000).

All 16 direct transfers or payments & expenditures paid out by the Westchester County Democratic Committee were for County Elections or a former County legislator seeking higher office, except for two: Corazon Pineda-Isaac for Yonkers City Council ($500) and Yadira Ramos-Herbert for New Rochelle Mayor ($60,000).

All 16 direct transfers or payments and expenditures paid out by the Westchester County Democratic Committee were for general election campaign except for three: Anthony Scarpino ($50,099), MaryJane Shimsky for State Assembly ($500) and Yadira Ramos-Herbert for New Rochelle Mayor ($60,000)

The three largest monetary contributions or payments & expenditures before the 2023 New Rochelle primary went to George Latimer for his County Executive race in 2017 ($25,000) and Anthony Scarpino for his Westchester County District Attorney race in 2020 ($50,099).

No matter how it’s sliced, $60,000 from the WCDC for a local primary election is highly unusual — the most for any candidate, in any race, at any level since 2018 and more than given to the campaign committees for Westchester County Executive and Westchester County District Attorney, the two highest offices in Westchester County.

That much money for a local primary is a significant outlier.

The report shows that Yadira Ramos-Herbert has received so far a total of $47,915 in monetary contributions from 169 donors. The average contribution was $283.52, with the largest being $1,223 and the smallest being $30.

Of the total monetary contributions, 162 were from individual donors totaling $45,580.

Ramos-Herbert also received five contributions from political committees totaling $1,000. Friends of Terry Clements contributed a total of $375, with two separate contributions of $250 and $125. The New Rochelle Democratic Committee and Re-Elect Judge Wood each contributed $250. Friends of Ivar Hyden contributed $125.

SBI Consultants (Solutions for the Building Industry) contributed $500 to Ramos-Herbert's campaign. Maddali Paci Atallah, a former member of the New Rochelle Board of Education and current member of the Executive Board (and Assistant Treasurer) of the New Rochelle Council of the Arts,, is on the payroll at SBI.

The report also includes a monetary contribution of $535 with no details provided.

In terms of the number of contributions by dollar amount, Ramos-Herbert received one contribution of $30, 32 contributions of $100, 37 contributions of $125, one contribution of $150, one contribution of $175, two contributions of $200, 50 contributions of $250, one contribution of $300, one contribution of $317, 25 contributions of $500, one contribution of $535, 11 contributions of $1,000 and one contribution of $1,223.

Based on a series of emails seen by Talk of the Sound, dated April 13, Noam Bramson sought and obtained a list of developers doing business in New Rochelle from the New Rochelle Development Department.

Bramson went to Economic Development Director Jorge Ventura to request the developer list.

At 8:59 am, Ventura provided Bramson the list, copying Development Commissioner Adam Salgado on the email.

At 9:55 am, Ventura forwarded his email to Bramson to City Manager Kathleen Gill, copied to Salgado.

At 10:15 am, Gill forwarded the same email back to Bramson, copied to Salgado, asking the Mayor to state the purpose of his request.

At 10:23 am, Bramson replied that he requested the list from Ventura, after he discussed the request with Salgado (suggesting but not actually saying Salgado approved Ventura sending the list to Bramson at 8:59 am), for the purpose of providing the list to the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence for fundraising solicitation.

All of this is quite odd and irregular.

There is no explanation as to why Bramson bypassed the City Manager to go directly to a junior administrator within the City government. Regardless, there are open government questions whether a list of names and email addresses can be provided by an agency explicitly for the purpose of solicitation.

Bramson has often presented himself as intimately involved in development in New Rochelle, so would presumably know the developers. The same information is readily available by anyone walking through downtown New Rochelle because the developers are typically listed on signage at construction sites.

Bramson is not on the Board of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, so it is unclear why Bramson would act on their behalf when the Fund could easily make such a request directly.

However it happened, Bramson ended up with the following list on April 13.

Developers Contact ListAllstate Ventures

Mikel Jeremias mikel@allstatedevelopers.com

Abraham Jeremias abraham@allstateventures.com

BRP Development Corp

Rashid Walker rwalker@brpcompanies.com

The Cappelli Organization

Bruce Berg bruce@icappelli.com

Louis Cappelli louis@icappelli.com

Georgica Green Ventures

David Gallo davidgallo@georgicagreen.com

Khosla Capitol

Raman Khosla rkhosla@khoslacap.com

Mill Creek Residential

Nick Halstead nhalstead@mcrtrust.com

Russell Tepper rtepper@mcrtrust.com

Monarch Coopers Corner

Michael Glynn

mglynn@monarchcommunities.com

RXR

Joe Graziose jvgraziose@rxrrealty.com

David Garten dgarten@rxrrealty.com

Stagg Group

Mark Fonte mark@trifont.com

ELD Properties

Anthony Hammel anthony@ELDproperties.com

The Young Companies

Bob Young bob@youngcompanies.com

Twining Properties

Alex Twining alex.twining@twiningproperties.com

Wilder Balter & L+M

Jim Wendling jwendling@wilderbalter.com

Katherine Kelman kkelman@lmxd.com

381-383 Huguenot LLC

Frank Chechile

frank.chechile@hotmail.com

Each developer was contacted by Talk of the Sound today and asked about this matter:

RE: Noam Bramson solicitation of developers

Hi,

I am a reporter working on a story.

On April 14, 2023, New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson sought and obtained from the New Rochelle Development Office a list of developers (see attached) doing business in New Rochelle. You are receiving this email because your name and email address is on this list.

The Mayor told the City Manager he wanted the list to share with the “Fund for Educational Excellence, so they can send sponsorship solicitations for their Gala”.

The Mayor was referring to the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence's 2023 Foundation Awards Gala on May 3rd, 2023.

Did you, directly or indirectly, receive the sort of “sponsorship solicitation” described by the Mayor?

Did you, directly or indirectly, provide money to the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence between April 13, 2023 and today?

In her campaign committee’s 32-day pre-primary campaign finance report filed May 26, 2023, New Rochelle Mayoral Candidate Yadira Ramos-Herbert reported a single $60,000 direct transfer, paid on a debit card, from the Westchester County Democratic Committee. For a variety of reasons, this contribution sticks out like a sore thumb.

The Westchester County Democratic Committee failed to file its 32-day pre-primary campaign finance report on May 26, 2023 and has, so far, refused to respond to inquiries as to why they did not file their report, when they expect to file their report, or to otherwise explain how they came to make an unprecedented direct transfer of $60,000.

I am investigating whether Mayor Bramson orchestrated the bundling of monetary contributions from developers such as yourself, using the list he obtained on April 13, to the Ramos-Herbert campaign committee, directing the funds be sent to the WCDC, earmarked for the Friends of Yadira campaign committee, to mask the original sources of the $60,000.

Monetary contributions to the WCDC are public record. I would imagine you would be well aware of that, so if you did, directly or indirectly, make monetary contributions to the WCDC, you would know that once the WCDC files their belated 32-day pre-primary campaign finance report, the primary sources of the $60,000 will be available in the report.

In the meantime, can you please tell me whether you were solicited for monetary campaign contributions per above?

Did you, directly or indirectly, make monetary campaign contributions per above?

Thank you.

Robert Cox

Publisher and Managing Editor

Talk of the Sound

David Garten of RXR was the first to reply:

RXR received solicitations to contribute to the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence annual gala from Jonathan Stark, the board chair of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, via email on March 27th and on April 21st.

The April 21st email was a follow-up to the email sent from Jonathan Stark on March 27th.

The solicitation requests focused solely on supporting the Fund’s annual gala, with no other mentions of what you described in your email.

RXR did not receive any solicitations about the Gala or the Fund for Excellence from anyone other than Jonathan Stark.

RXR has not provided any contributions, directly or indirectly, to the Fund or the Fund’s gala.

Anthony Hammel of ELD Properties replied:

I don’t recall getting any solicitation material for such event. We did not contribute to such event, nor to the political campaign listed

This article will be updated with any additional replies.

Jonathan Stark, the Chairman of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, did not respond to an email asking the following questions:

Did you, or anyone associated with the Fund, ask Mayor Bramson to obtain a list of developers for fundraising solicitation or any other purpose?
Did Mayor Bramson provide you the developer list he obtained from the Development Department on April 13?
If you were soliciting developers in March, why would you be asking Mayor Bramson to get you a list in April?
Which developers did you solicit to support the Gala on May 3?
Which developers gave money, directly or indirectly, to support the Gala on May 3?

UPDATE 6/5/23: see below for Statement from Jonathan Stark, Board Chair of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence

As noted above, Stephanie Tomei both hosted the Bramson/Stern fundraiser for Ramos-Herbert and is Executive Director of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence.

There has been plenty of monkey business and little financial transparency at the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence under Stark/Tomei.

The timeline raises questions:

The New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence Gala was held on May 3.
The Stern/Bramson/Tomei fundraiser for Yadira Ramos Herbert was held on May 7.
Stark solicited RXR on March 27 to support the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence Gala.
Bramson sought and obtained the developer list on April 13, supposedly on behalf of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence.
The Westchester County Democratic Committee transferred $60,000 to the Friends of Yadira Campaign on May 18
The Westchester County Democratic Committee will not explain where they got $60,000.

What is beyond question is that Yadira Ramos-Herbert has struggled to raise money for her campaign committee.

Her close association with Congressman Jamaal Bowman has not played well among many Jewish voters, who tend to support Democrats in New Rochelle. Many Jewish organizations and media outlets have criticized Bowman as anti-Israel, so Ramos-Herbert’s association with Bowman is problematic.

The Forward: Last year, Congressman Bowman removed his name from a bill to expand the Abraham Accords peace deals — this, after signing on as an early supporter. Three months later, he co-sponsored a resolution with Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Betty McCollum and Cori Bush commemorating the Palestinian “Nakba,” a term that characterizes Israel’s founding on May 14, 1948, as a “catastrophe”… Congressman Bowman is no longer merely an accessory to anti-Israel rhetoric in Washington. He is now leading the effort to erode support for Israel on Capitol Hill and within the Democratic Party.

Her participation in event organized by members of the Nation of Islam last December at the New Rochelle Public Library has likewise not played well within the Jewish community.

When asked about the involvement of the Nation of Islam at the event, and the repeated enthusiastic references to Louis Farrakhan, Yadira Ramos-Herbert refused to condemn the Nation of Islam.

I was not aware that the NOI would present at the event on Saturday, as I was not involved in planning the program. I was invited and attended in an effort to hear community feedback on ways to disrupt gun violence in our community. I participated in the part of the program led by a social worker. I left early as I had another engagement and did not see the final presentation (or anything after the anonymous survey results were shared). I unequivocally denounce antisemitism.

Nation of Islam supporters do not believe Farrakhan’s controversial statements about Jews are anti-semitic, that his statements are simply true and accurate, so they would not interpret Ramos-Herbert’s denunciation of anti-semitism as applicable to the NOI or Farrakhan.

For Ramos-Herbert, denouncing anti-semitism in this context is a way to appear to embrace Jewish criticism of Farrakhan without actually doing so, because doing so would alienate Black voters who have a positive view of the Nation of Islam.

There have been other questionable practices involving Yadira Ramos-Herbert and the New Rochelle Public Library.

On Friday, March 10, the library hosted a fundraiser for the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation. The focus of the evening event was an 18 hole miniature golf course set up to showcase all 3 floors of the library. The following day, Saturday, the miniature golf course was open to the public, available for free, to children and families.

Yadira Ramos-Herbert paid $500 to sponsor a hole on the course. The hole was personally decorated by Christina Selin, President of the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation and a contributor to Friends of Yadira, who later claimed not to have noticed that she was decorating the hole with campaign signs with the name “Yadira Ramos-Herbert” and the words “Democrat for New Rochelle Mayor” on them (one of the campaign signs was taped to a balloon).

The three signs were at the tee, along the fairway, and at the green. The signs appear to be a flagrant violation of the intention of New Rochelle Public Library policy to bar political activities at the library.

The event was publicized on Facebook, social media, the library website, through constant contact, and by mailed invitations to the Foundation's list of donors.

Two political candidates donated $500 each for a hole sponsorship: Ximena Francella and Yadira Ramos Herbert. Francella decorated her hole simply, with balloons but no campaign signs or campaign literature. Yadira Ramos Herbert decorated her hole with multiple campaign signs.

Asked about the display of campaign literature supporting Yadira Ramos Herbert, Selin said, “In the future, if the Foundation does have another event such as this at the Library, we will be more sensitive and avoid any political displays.”

The Democratic Primary takes place on June 27, with early voting to begin on June 17.

UPDATES:

Statement from Jonathan Stark, Board Chair of the New Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence (6/5/23)

As you may be aware, as a non-profit, it is common to solicit participation for journal ads and support for an annual gala, and/or more broadly, towards broader fundraising goals to support our work. As in the past, the Fund solicited support from individuals and entities that live, do business, and/or are located in New Rochelle for donations to support the public school students in the city.

I reached out to a number of developers, some who have supported the Fund in the past. The Fund did reach out to request a list from the Mayor. While I had some outreach directly, the list was helpful in filling either gaps we didn’t have contacts for, or for those we had incorrect emails (as I received a number of bounce backs due to incorrect emails).

This list was provided to us for that purpose.