A media consultant firm responsible for more than $500,000 in attack ads against New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has longtime ties to gubernatorial challenger U.S. Representative Thomas Suozzi.
Empire Results, a so-called dark money group, is reportedly spending $567,000 on attack ads against Hochul that target her crime stance and handling of New York’s bail laws, according to Albany Times-Union.
Empire Results’ Federal Communications Commission filings shows the political media consultant behind the ads is Martin Hamburger, who has been a political consultant to Suozzi for two decades.
Suozzi’s gubernatorial campaign acknowledged having worked with Hamburger in the past, but stated “he is not on the gubernatorial campaign team. We have no knowledge of the ads other than what we have read in the press. No coordination.”
Hamburger worked for Suozzi’s successful congressional campaigns in 2016, 2018, and 2020, but has not been paid by Suozzi’s current campaign.
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