An already well-funded Manhattan City Council candidate is getting an extra boost from an outside super PAC funded by members of the billionaire Tisch family.
Rachel Storch, one of six candidates running in the competitive District 4 Democratic primary, is the beneficiary of an independent expenditure committee that reported its first spending this week. The PAC, New Yorkers for Common Sense, has been funded with $70,000 contributed by Sam Tisch — a hedge-fund manager, heir to the Loews Corporation fortune and brother of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The PAC’s listed officers are Sam Tisch, his wife Eliana Tisch — an Apple executive — and Lisa Lalezarian Cohen, whose parents own the real estate firm Lalezarian Properties. The PAC spent $56,137 starting last week on a Facebook ad promoting Storch, which has been viewed more than 50,000 times.
Super PACs are legally barred from coordinating with candidates but can be set up by their allies, who can take advantage of the PACs’ ability to raise and spend unlimited sums of money. Storch herself has raised nearly $433,000 for her campaign, more than any non-incumbent candidate citywide, after making the relatively unusual decision to opt out of the city’s public matching funds program and raise all her money from private donors — who remain limited by the city’s $1,600 individual contribution cap.
That choice has affected the whole field in District 4, a prominent seat that covers part of the Upper East Side, Central and East Midtown, and Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village. Under city rules, Storch’s prolific fundraising has raised the other candidates’ spending limits from $228,000 to $342,000, resulting in a high-spending affair that Storch’s rivals have lamented.
Storch has carved out a centrist lane in the crowded race, focusing on public safety and anti-Semitism. Currently chief operating officer for the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, Storch previously served three terms in the Missouri State Legislature before relocating to New York 15 years ago.
Her campaign has also gotten support from the Tisch family. Alexander Tisch, an executive in the hotels division of the Loews Corporation and a cousin of the police commissioner, gave $550; and Daniela Tisch, whose husband Benjamin is Jessica’s brother, donated $1,600.
None of the PAC’s organizers could immediately be reached for comment. The listed contact for New Yorkers for Common Sense is Vito Pitta, a compliance attorney known for representing Mayor Eric Adams’ campaigns.
Storch’s campaign did not immediately comment.
Thirteen super PACs are spending money in the June 24 primary elections, but most are backing multiple candidates — such as the Real Estate Board of New York-backed PAC, which is so far supporting two council candidates, and DoorDash, which told Crain’s Tuesday that it plans to spend $2 million to boost a handful of council candidates.
Among the candidates slated to benefit from DoorDash’s largesse is one of Storch’s rivals: Virginia Maloney, a tech executive and daughter of former Congressman Carolyn Maloney.
