Exclusive | Wannabe NY House Dem Cait Conley illegally coordinated with outside groups in shady payment scheme: FEC complaint
New York House Democratic candidate Cait Conley’s campaign violated law by coordinating with outside groups in a shady payment deal, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.Conley — who vehemently rejects the claim — is challenging two-term Republican Rep.Mike Lawler in the Hudson Valley’s 17th District in what independent analysts consider one of the most competitive races in the country.Andres Gil, chairman of the Putnam County Republican Party and a Lawler ally, filed the complaint against the Conley campaign, several Democratic group and a Conley spokesman at the center of it all, Jackie Rosa.“This complaint concerns a single political operative, Jackie Rosa, who simultaneously served as a de facto communications spokesperson for the Conley Committee, was compensated by one or more outside political organizations – MD PAC and Precinct – rather than by the campaign for that work, and is tied to an entity, Precinct LLC, that the Conley Committee itself paid as a `campaign consultant,’ ” Gil wrote in his Aug.
14 complaint to the FEC.“That combination presents two related, investigable violations of the [Federal Election Campaign] Act,” he said.Rosa functioned as the Conley campaign’s press contact during a competitive Democratic primary earlier this year, the complaint said.She introduced herself to a reporter as being with Conley’s team, giving on-the-record statements for stories about the campaign, arranging for a surrogate to defend the candidate and circulating an opposition memo against one of the candidate’s primary rivals, according to the missive.“The Conley Committee did not pay for those 2026 services: its only disclosed payments to Precinct were two disbursements totaling $20,000 made in August 2025, months before the services at issue, and it reports no payment of any kind to Ms.
Rosa,” the complaint said.The payment for Rosa’s services by some other group amounts to an in-kind contributio...