While New York City’s campaign finance system caps how much money people can give to campaigns, there are no limits on what corporations can give to independent influence groups, which in turn can spend as much as they want to their preferred candidates. 

Some of the most influential real estate and financial interests in the city have coalesced behind former Governor Andrew Cuomo, flooding an independent expenditure committee called Fix the City. In all, that group has amassed more than $9 million in donations — more than any individual candidate in the running is permitted to spend on the primary race if they’re participating in the public matching program.

But corporations and special interests have set their sights on City Council races as well, spending $1.7 million so far on independent expenditures to try and influence races across the city, according to campaign filings updated Tuesday. Such groups can spend unlimited sums so long as they do not coordinate with campaigns.

With the primary election coming up on June 24 and early voting starting June 14, spending is likely to accelerate. In 2021, when a majority of seats were open contests because of term limits, independent expenditure committees eventually spent $6.5 million on Council races.

Here are the biggest outside spenders so far in this year’s Council contests:

Airbnb

The biggest spender on Council races thus far is a group called Affordable New York, which is exclusively funded by Airbnb. Filings with the Campaign Finance Board show the company has allotted $5 million to the project and spent $547,669 on seven Council races thus far. 

The company’s interest in municipal elections is no secret. In 2022, the City Council ed a law barring most short-term rentals and requiring hosts to with the city. Now an effort is underway to roll that law back. One bill under consideration would allow rentals in one- and two-family homes. Airbnb is spending to help reelect five of the bill’s cosponsors: Althea V. Stevens, Mercedes Narcisse, Kevin C. Riley, Selvena N. Brooks-Powers, and Oswald Feliz. The group is also spending on incumbent Amanda Farías and on behalf of Tyrell Hankerson, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’s chief of staff, who is running to replace her term-limited boss currently running for mayor. 

Uber

In a new spending blitz reported on Tuesday, for an open seat in Queens currently held by term-limited Francisco Moya, covering ​​East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, LeFrak City and Corona. The ride-hailing giant has invested $102,094 to boost Yanna Henriquez, one of three leading candidates in a competitive contest there. 

The Council has made attempts to regulate the ride-share and food delivery giant in recent years, including by raising the minimum wage for drivers and app delivery workers. City Limits reported app companies have responded by restricting the number of people who can use the app at any given time, among other ways to skirt the new pay mandates. And lawmakers are mulling other reforms, including a bill that would require apps to post an option for tipping the delivery worker before a customer completes their payment, and another one that would require companies to disclose how they planned to calculate worker pay in advance. Uber is spending on ads to help promote three co-sponsors of that legislation: Hudson, Menin, Narcisse. 

Asked about the independent groups’ efforts, Jacob Hunter, Hudson’s campaign manager, said candidates had no control over outside spending but that Hudson is still committed to expanding protections for delivery workers. 

“Nothing can or will change her unwavering for the immigrant communities that comprise the for-hire vehicle and delivery worker industries,” he said. 

Teachers Unions

New York State United Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers have amassed $1.5 million in a fund called United for NYC’s Future to candidates this election cycle. So far they have spent money on mailers and online ads in two Council races, aiming to boost incumbent Upper East Side Councilmember Julie Menin and Queens candidate Dermot Smyth.

A former public school teacher turned union representative, Smyth is running for the open seat spanning Maspeth, Middle Village, and Glendale that Robert Holden, a conservative “Common Sense” Democrat, is term-limited out of. 

Mike Jenkins

The fourth largest spender on Council races is former pulled a similar move back in 2022, flooding a Bronx assembly race with more than $200,000 in of candidate Emmanuel Martinez. The spending didn’t work, however and George Alvarez — who is currently representing the district in the Assembly — beat Martinez handily. 

While the motives behind Jenkins’ investment are unclear, in early May the group began posting videos on social media opposing One Fair Wage legislation, which is a nationwide effort to up the minimum wage of tipped workers to the same minimum wage as everyone else. The Council has no authority in the matter but the state legislature is considering an aligned measure. 

In addition to Lopez’s campaign, Jenkins’ PAC has also said it’s endorsing Working Families Party-backed Erycka Montoya in the crowded race to replace Moya, as well as Manhattan Council incumbents Yusef Salaam and Christopher Marte. 

Big Real Estate 

An independent expenditure committee called Jobs for New York, which is backed by many of the Real Estate Board of New York and run by people who also work for REBNY, has spent $166,323 on mailers sent to voters in two Council districts. In Brooklyn’s 38th District, spanning parts of Sunset Park, Gowanus, Park Slope, Borough Park and Dyker Heights, the group is backing challenger Ling Ye, who is attempting to oust the Democratic Socialists of America-endorsed incumbent Alexa Avilés. 

In the open race for Moya’s seat, the group is backing Shanel Thomas-Henry, who is leading a crowded field ahead of Montoya,. 

Both Avilés and Montoya have called for the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents for tenants in stabilized housing this year. Jobs for New York has raised $1.18 million from major New York real estate interests that include Extel, Rockrose Development, RXR, Vornado and Rudin Management. 

Madison Square Garden

The independent expenditure committee named the Coalition to Restore New York is exclusively funded by Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., committee filings show. For years urbanists have mulled ousting the infamous arena in order to fully reconstruct crumbling Penn Station wedged below it, and the next Council will consider whether or not to extend MSG’s permit to continue to host large-scale events past 2028. In 2023, the Council approved just a five-year extension of the arena’s permit, the shortest extension it had ever offered.

Now MSG is targeting three Council races, favoring Brooklyn incumbent Darlene Mealy and two newbies: Smyth for Holden’s seat in District 30 and Maya Kornberg in Brooklyn. Kornberg is attempting to oust incumbent Councilmember Shahana Hanif’s for her District 39 seat, which covers Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, and Gowanus. 

Hanif, who co-chairs the Council’s Progressive Caucus, has been a critic of MSG CEO James Dolan, introducing a bill last year to ban facial recognition technology used by MSG. That measure has since stalled in committee, after heavy lobbying against it from MSG, the Daily News reported. 

Hanif is also facing the only negative campaigning reported thus far by an outside group in a Council race, from a group called Brooklyn BridgeBuilders. Thus far, the group founded by “neighbors alarmed by rising antisemitism” has spent $13,326 on attack flyers. The group have taken aim the Councilmember’s pro-Palestinian stance, drawing donations from people who include Douglas Durst of The Durst Organization, Daniel Loeb, of Third Point LLC, and Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management.