No doubt a massive issue regarding Suffolk politics is that of home-rule and local people. We’ve had no shortage of people from outside Suffolk who have tried to claim office here in recent cycles. Perry Gershon (D) admitted to changing his registration to East Hampton ahead of the 2018 Congressional election, earning him the nickname “Park Avenue Perry.”
Last year, Michelle Bond (R) was Suffolk’s – and The Messenger’s – resident non-resident.
But a truly local campaign is more than just which hamlet the person in the suit calls home.
Each cycle always produces at least one. This year’s model is called Dave Calone.
Calone, born and raised in Suffolk, went through the Mt. Sinai and Port Jefferson school districts and currently resides in Setauket.
After studying law and economics, Calone went on to work as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. He served as a Governing Trustee for the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) until 2012. LIPA is known for its disastrous handling of storm preparation for Hurricane Sandy and the recovery efforts that followed.
Calone was also appointed by the last two county executives to serve as Chair of the Suffolk County Planning Commission.
So, while Calone has a large resume, the success of which can be debated, he’s undeniably a Suffolk man.
The problem for Calone stems not from his residency, but the residency of a large sum of his money. The July campaign finance reports show Calone with $2.3 million cash on hand and Romaine with $1.5 million.
However, these figures alone obscure the fact that while Calone has a bigger war chest, Romaine actually outraised Calone for the period, with $1.3 million in contributions to Calone’s $868,925.
Of Calone’s fifty-three donations that were at least $10,000 each, twenty-seven produce out-of-Suffolk addresses, ranging from New York City, White Plains, St. Louis, Potomac, Washington, D.C., Denver, and parts of California.
Romaine, on the other hand, has received thirty-three donations that exceed $10,000. Those outside of New York: three, from one donor.
Part of this is owed to Calone’s network. Calone is President and CEO of Jove Equity Partners, Inc., a private equity and venture capital firm which invests in companies operating the healthcare, real estate, digital media, software, transportation, energy, and Internet sectors.
Through this firm, Calone has made investments for companies that operate out of Suffolk. Namely San Francisco and Denver. A notable connection produced Calone’s top donor – besides himself – that of Glen E. Tullman, the CEO of Transcarent, a health care platform based in San Francisco. Tullman, a Chicago native, kicked Calone $50,000. Calone also serves as a board member for Transcarent.
Now, while Transcarent can be a fine company, and while the connection does necessarily point to any quid pro quo, we’re wary of such large sums of money pouring in from sources closer to Calone’s inner circle than they are to Suffolk County.
A common denominator on Calone’s contributions list is, oddly, the Centennial State: Colorado.
One of Calone’s old friends from Princeton is none other than the current governor of Colorado, Jared Polis (D). Calone defeated Polis in a student body election, but Calone, extending an olive branch to Polis, offered Polis a position in his cabinet. The two have clearly been friends ever since.
In fact, Calone’s political ties to the governor go back to when Polis was first elected to the U.S. from Colorado’s Second Congressional District in 2008.
Many forget that this year’s run for executive is not Calone’s first brush with politics. He ran in the Democratic Primary for New York’s First Congressional District in 2016 to take on Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley).
A quick Google search of “Dave Calone Jared Polis” produces among the results a page from bartlorang.com. Bart Lorang, based in Boulder, Colorado, is a tech entrepreneur, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, is the founder of three “exits” and one “active” startup. He says he’s “bootstrapped and raised” over $100 million in capital.
Lorang’s website endorses Calone for Congress in 2016, stating: “We did it awhile back, when we voted Jared Polis into U.S. Congress as Colorado’s 2nd District Representative. Now, we have a chance to elect another huge supporter of entrepreneurship and innovation. This time with Dave Calone for a House seat in New York!”
More recently, Calone’s attendance at a ritzy July Manhattan fundraiser headlined by Governor Polis himself apparently sought $100,000 for his campaign. What kind of candidate for a local office of a suburban county needs to travel to one of the biggest cities in the world in search of six figures, instead of asking working-class people, some of whom are your neighbors, to kick in $10 or $20 when they can, and furthermore, with a governor of a state on the other side of the country?
Polis himself donated $20,000 to Calone’s campaign.
Calone’s Rocky Mountain connections don’t end there, however. According to the campaign contributions report, Calone has fifty-three unique donations – although not necessarily unique donors – from Colorado. Out of 1,269 unique donations he’s received, fifty-three, or roughly 4%, come from Colorado.
However, the total money obtained from Colorado donations comes out to $149,399.
With Calone’s $868,925 contributions – not counting what he loaned or gave himself – the Colorado money accounts for 17% of his contributions.
The top Colorado donations come from Larry Mizel, founder and executive chairman of MDC Holdings, a Denver-based home construction company. Mizel donated $25,000 to Calone on July 5, and another $25,000 on July 9.
MDC and its subsidiaries have operations in fourteen states; New York is not one of them.
Mizel was also helpful in funding the 2019 inauguration committee of a certain Governor: Jared Polis.
It would at least be a consolation prize if MDC functioned in New York. But Suffolk County doesn’t receive remotely any benefits from the Mizel-Calone relationship, other than that Calone gets $50,000 from Mizel. How exactly does that benefit Suffolk? Calone is already on the ballot, with or without Mizel’s money, and, according to his campaign website, Calone could be running on any number of his Suffolk-centric jobs and/or positions.
The problem doesn’t just end with out-of-state contributions, but Calone’s expenses.
More than $150,000 have not gone to campaign staff and fundraisers; rather, consultants. The public relations and campaign management firms he has paid specialize in electing Democrats to office, even on the national level.
Nearly $100,000 has gone to Gusto, a San Francisco-based payroll and human resources firm, whose website claims it to be the “#1 rated HR platform for payroll, benefits, and more.”
It’s fine to have a bit of consultation on the campaign trail, unless you’re someone who’s a lifelong campaigner and knows the ins and outs of politicking. But kicking six-figures to out-of-Suffolk consultants seems ludicrous for someone running in a local election. If you need to pay more than six figures for consultation on a local campaign, then you probably shouldn’t be running for office. Calone is a Setauket resident. Why does he need to pay New York City PR firms to teach him how to run a localized campaign? Shouldn’t his local roots be enough? And if connecting with local voters – in some cases, his neighbors – really is that difficult that it warrants a massive price tag, then it’s valid to question his ability to connect with residents if he gets sent to Hauppauge for four years.
The final squeeze of the lemon juice over the paper cut is his campaign manager and media liaison, Shane Wolfe, who, according to Calone’s campaign expenditures, has been paid $42,262 since January. From the expenditures sheet, Wolfe’s address is listed as Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
The fact of the matter is: local elections warrant local politics and groups, not out-of-state money, people, and efforts. Local politics is the only line in the sand that divides from the tidal waves of nationalized, hot-button politics, with the bulk of said issues not affecting the vast majority of the public anyway. Calone’s finances are a bastardization of the local election process, the integrity of the local campaign, and the sanctity of the local vote.
