In the wake of Comptroller John Liu's campaign finance scandal that has landed one of his bundlers and his campaign treasure in hot water with the feds, the NYC Campaign Finance Board is trying to clarify how exactly campaign finance works legally. The NY Times reports, "The workshop was requested by a new coalition of community groups, the Asian American Civic Alliance, which was formed after the fund-raising woes of the comptroller, John C. Liu, who had been regarded until recently as a likely candidate for mayor, came to light."
Liu fund raiser Xing Wu "Oliver" Pan is accused of accepting a $16,000 donation, which is higher than the allowed $4,950, from a FBI undercover. Pan allegedly sought to mask the large donation through straw donors. Treasurer Jia "Jenny" Hou is also accused of masking higher-than-allowed donations through straw donors—she allegedly instant-messaged, "Don’t worry about it. I’m gonna mail it to [individual’s residence]. Whenever you get a chance though, I need [you to] sign that form and send it back to me cus [because] I can’t charge your card without a signature." Hence tips like "Don’t forget to ask each contributor to fill out as much information about himself or herself — including place of employment — as possible."
At a workshop on Monday night, Korean American Community Empowerment Council John Park said, "I worry about John Liu. But I am more worried about how this will hurt Asian-Americans’ political involvement and scare off contributors." And Edward Ma, who is on Community Board 2, told the Times, "Asian-Americans have learned a hard lesson, because everyone hoped that John would be mayor. But there are land mines, and they are very clear — don’t do this, do this. It’s very preventable for any politician."
