TOWN OF NEWBURGH – A $228 campaign website?
It sounds like a deal too good to be true, and election law experts are questioning whether the rock-bottom price reflects the true value of the services provided to Town of Newburgh supervisor candidate Stephen Krasner.
Election law attorney Adam Fusco and Jeffrey M. Wice, a professor at New York Law School, said state election law requires candidates to report nonmonetary contributions, including free or discounted professional services, at fair market value, regardless of what the campaign actually paid.
“In-kind (non-monetary) contributions must be reported and disclosed at fair market value,” said Fusco, who typically represents Republican clients, including in Orange County. “If the business charges a particular fee for its services, such as designing a website or social media page, but waives that customary fee because of a relationship with a particular candidate, the candidate must still report the fair market value of that service to the Board of Elections.”
Krasner previously acknowledged that his campaign paid nothing to Joshua Huckabee, owner of Kwill.io LLC, for building its website. Huckabee, the partner of Democratic Orange County Legislator Stephen Hunter, also covered hosting costs and assisted with campaign mailers.
After questions from Mid-Hudson News, Krasner’s campaign amended its July filing with the NYS Board of Elections to report $228 in free, unspecified services from Huckabee. The services were not disclosed in the original filing.
Prior to the Oct. 8th Mid-Hudson News article, the Krasner Campaign was listed as a featured client on the website for LLC, a political promotion corporation owned by Huckabee. After the October 8 article, the Krasner campaign was removed from the Kwill website. Kwill is owned by Joshua Huckabee, although, prior to Oct. 8th story, Hunter was listed on the Kwill website as a “cofounder.”
On Sunday, Krasner declined to answer questions about the free work Huckabee performed for his campaign or whether the arrangement raised potential issues under state election law. He also did not respond to questions about receiving a free website and campaign promotion from Huckabee, who has continued to target Krasner’s Republican opponent, Scott Manley, with personal attacks, including through a website criticizing the candidate.
Fusco questioned whether the $228 reported by Krasner adequately reflected the value of the services.
“In this case, a mere $228 for designing an interactive and dynamic web portal sounds like a bargain too good to be true,” Fusco said. “Any difference between the quoted cost and the actual fair market value must also be disclosed to the Board as an in-kind contribution.”
Fusco and Wice both said amending a campaign finance filing does not necessarily eliminate potential liability for earlier state reporting violations.
“Campaign finance reports can be amended, but changing a filing after-the-fact may not excuse violations of New York’s strict campaign finance laws and the significant civil fines associated with such violations,” he said. “Asking for forgiveness is a much riskier strategy than filing the first time accurately.”
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