Uber is the latest tech giant planning to spend heavily in this year’s city elections, revealing in a new filing that it has banked $2.5 million in its political action committee and already spent more than $91,000 to support five City Council candidates.
The rideshare company has paid for mailers supporting four incumbents — Manhattan’s Julie Menin and Carmen De La Rosa, Darlene Mealy in Brooklyn and Althea Stevens in the Bronx, all of whom are facing lesser-known challengers in the June 24 Democratic primaries. Uber’s PAC is also boosting one candidate for an open seat: Yanna Henriquez, running to replace Francisco Moya in Queens.
The $2.5 million expenditure would be among the biggest of any corporate super PAC in the June 24 primary. Airbnb is spending $5 million, while delivery company DoorDash has contributed $1 million to a PAC supporting former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign. (That PAC, Fix the City, has raised more than $8 million through a mix of individual and corporate donations.)
Uber spokesman Josh Gold said the company is “supporting candidates who foster policies that improve affordability and access to transportation.”
“Politicians have allowed costs to skyrocket for drivers while making it harder for them to earn a living,” Gold said. He added that the company plans to support more council candidates beyond the initial five but did not say whether Uber would get involved in other elections, such as the mayor’s race.
Uber’s support could be especially helpful to Henriquez, a nonprofit leader and party official, who faces three opponents in the competitive District 21 race covering Jackson Heights, Corona and East Elmhurst. Notably, the Real Estate Board of New York is backing a different candidate in the race through its own PAC — Shanel Thomas-Henry, a community board member.
Aside from a required disclaimer in small type, the Uber-funded mailers make no mention of the company or its interests, as is common for PAC-funded election materials. One sent last week on behalf of Menin, at a cost of $25,561, proclaims that she “will never stop fighting for a safer Upper East Side,” hailing her work on public safety.
Another states that Mealy — a low-profile lawmaker from Central Brooklyn — “never forgets where she came from.” Mealy faces seven opponents in the June primary.
A total of nine super PACs — unburdened by the spending and fundraising limits that apply to individual candidates’ campaigns — have registered in this year’s city elections.
