RCT asks question on missing campaign finance filing, Porette campaign responds “Give him something so he doesn’t make something up”

BY MARC MOSS

The Maureen Porette for County Executive campaign has provided the Rockland County Times “something” as an explanation for their late pre-primary campaign filings. Whether that “something” is accurate, we do not know.

The Democratic Party county executive candidate Porette’s legally required August 11 financial filings had not been posted on the New York State Board of Election financial disclosure site as of Sunday, August 20, so the Rockland County Times asked the campaign why that is so? Uditinder S. Thakur, identified as Porette’s deputy campaign manager, at first told the Rockland County Times he did not know why the filings did not appear.

Following questions by the newspaper, the filings were finally posted online on the site Monday, August 21. Udit provided the explanation: “‘Ps – To be clear; we resent the filing because the original filing was not appearing online. We do not know what caused this, but it may have been a technical issue with the way the file was initially attached. Hope that clears things up! Best, Udit'”

Curiously, underneath Udit’s signature there was another comment.

“Give him something so he doesn’t make something up.”

An image of this email exchange is attached to the story.

Before the files were posted online and the official reasoning for the late post was offered by the Porette campaign, Udit had told the Rockland County Times:

Hello Mr. Skriloff,
My name is Udit Thakur, and I am Maureen’s Deputy Campaign Manager. Maureen did indeed file, even though she has not raised or spent money yet for the WFP opportunity to ballot; which was forced by Day despite his signed pledge to the party (on their questionnaire) that he would not do so.
Best wishes,
Udit

County Execute Day said Udit’s comment about his OTB on the Working Families line is inaccurate. He also said the verbiage in Udit’s comment regarding money raised or spent for the WFP primary does not make sense since campaign filings are required to report any and all financial activity by a candidate 32 days prior to a primary, not just those focused on the party primary.

Day criticized Porette’s handling of the campaign filing. He said, “Regardless of the flimsy excuses, the fact is that Ms. Porette failed to filer her required campaign finance report, thus violating the Financial Disclosure laws of [New York]. For one who has been so vocal about campaign  ethics and her claimed financial expertise, I find it shocking that someone who seeks the highest office the county does not understand or comply with a simple, basic reporting schedule.”

Porette did not respond to requests for comment about why her filing did not appear online until 10 days after the filing deadline.In response to the remark underneath the Porette campaign’s email stating the Rockland County Times would “make something up” if the campaign didn’t “give him something,” Rockland County Times Editor and Publisher Dylan Skriloff said, “The strange comment underneath Udit’s email speaks for itself. I can only add that it makes one question whether Porette’s explanation is true. I suggest her campaign post time- stamped computer activity proving they had filed on time but the document failed to upload as claimed.”

Skriloff also said, “I remind readers one of the newspaper’s main jobs is to ensure government officials follow the rules of transparency. Within hours of our prompting, the Porette campaign had posted their campaign’s activity online as required by law. This shows we are doing our job.”

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