A Democratic candidate vying for a New York state assembly seat is already using Mayor Eric Adams’ fundraising scandal as political fodder to bash an incumbent rival who is one of Hizzoner’s loyalists.
Jonathan Soto, who has thrown his hat in the ring for the Bronx’s Assembly District 82, on Friday ripped his Democratic opponent, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, for being a “key ally” of Adams who he described as going though a “potential corruption scandal.”
The bashing came a day after the feds raided the home of one of Hizzoner’s top fundraisers amid a federal probe into whether any funds were illegally funneled to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign as part of an alleged kickback scheme involving a Brooklyn construction company and the Turkish government.
“I’m running against Mayor Adams’s key ally, the NYS Assembly Education Chair Michael Benedetto,” Soto said in an email to supporters.
The political hopeful went on to note that Benedetto, who is chair of the education committee, had “partnered” with Adams to “protect the mayor’s control of [the Department of Education’s] $40 billion budget for their cronies while harming the education of 1,000,000+ NYC public schools students.”
Soto also referenced a rally he held last year in which he called out the “mayor’s cynical use of faith to justify his harmful education policies.”
“Yesterday’s news of Mayor Adams potential corruption scandal confirms the fears I shared at the rally,” Soto charged, adding that he had “cautioned faith leaders against justifying the mayor’s policies.”
“I made the case that education is not about mayoral control, education is about liberation.”
Benedetto didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for about his challenger’s criticism of his ties to the mayor.
It comes after the FBI raided the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs — one of the mayor’s top fundraisers — on Thursday as part of a broader public corruption probe and alleged kickback scheme.
Investigators were seeking evidence as to whether Adams’ campaign conspired with the Turkish government and Williamsburg-based KSK Construction Group to move foreign cash to his 2021 mayoral campaign accounts using straw donors, sources told The Post.
Neither Suggs nor the mayor have been arrested or charged with a crime.
Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy