Republican NYC Council candidate returns George Santos donation
Candidates for elected office will do a lot of things to get a fundraising edge in a tight race. But in a close three-way race for City Council in southern Brooklyn, accepting donations from embattled Republican Rep. George Santos isn’t one of them.
Republican City Council candidate Ying Tan returned a $50 donation that appeared to be made by Santos. According to city campaign finance records, a George Santos – whose employer is noted as “US house or representatives,” and occupation as “US Representative” – donated $50 to Tan on Sept. 11. In the most recent campaign finance reporting period, that donation was noted as returned by the Tan campaign.
Santos did not explicitly confirm that he made the donation – as opposed to someone just using his name – and Tan’s campaign doesn’t know definitively that it came from Santos. But Tan’s campaign said that they returned the donation nevertheless, explaining in an emailed statement, “In light of the ongoing investigation into potential misconduct by Representative Santos, our campaign made the decision not to accept his contribution. This policy applies to any individual currently facing prosecution.”
Santos, who lied about vast swaths of his resume to get elected last year, is facing an array of charges in the Eastern District of New York, including that he used donors’ credit cards to make unauthorized charges and spent campaign funds on personal expenses. (He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.) Santos is running for reelection in the 3rd Congressional District, but is now also facing an expulsion effort led by some of his own Republican colleagues in Congress.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2023/10/republican-nyc-council-candidate-returns-george-santos-donation/391633/