No Developer Money: Why My Campaign Only Answers to Taxpayers
If you want to understand how a county legislator will actually govern, don't just listen to what they say. Look at who's funding their campaign. Money has a way of shaping decisions long before a vote ever gets cast and nowhere is that truer than in local development, where a legislator can directly influence how tall a building gets, how much county funding a project receives, and how many tax breaks a developer walk away with.
I've made a point, across several videos now, of being transparent about exactly where my campaign's money comes from, and just as importantly, where it doesn't come from.
Watch the videos here: Candidate's Finances: No Big Developers, Just Taxpayers! · Why I turned down big donor money · Developer money vs. the people: Who wins?
Look at the campaign finance filings of other candidates in this race and you'll see a familiar pattern: donations from large real estate developers, some of them totaling thousands of dollars over the course of the campaign. Now look at mine. You won't find a single dollar from a developer, a major PAC, or an outside special interest. Every dollar has come from actual residents and taxpayers, including people who've offered as little as $200 because they wanted to see someone represent them, not a donor list.
This isn't just about optics or a talking point for a 30-second video. It's about who's sitting across the table when the real decisions get made. When a developer comes before the county asking for incentives, asking for zoning flexibility, asking for a green light on a new luxury building, the legislator voting on that deal has to be someone who can say no when saying no is the right call. If that legislator has taken tens of thousands of dollars from developers over the years, how much leverage do you really think you have in that negotiation?
I never want to be in a position where I'm choosing between a large donation and doing right by the people I represent. That's why I made this decision on day one of this campaign, and it's a decision I intend to keep making as a legislator, deal by deal, vote by vote.
Dan D'Amico is running for Westchester County Legislature, District 16, representing Yonkers.
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