Democrat Laura Gillen is pitching herself as a House candidate who already “took aim at waste and corruption” on the local level — after helping hand a top donor a $1.5 billion contract to renovate the area around the aging Nassau Coliseum.
As Hempstead town supervisor, Gillen championed the project and credited herself and Democratic Nassau County Executive Laura Curran with being able “to finally get something at the [Nassau] Hub after decades of Republican obstructionism,” Newsday reported in 2019.
While at least 17 developers initially vied for the contract, Nassau officials tapped RXR Realty Investments to revamp the area with two hotels, 500 housing units, office buildings and research facilities as well as 200,000 square feet devoted to retail businesses.
RXR Realty Investments CEO Scott Rechler donated nearly $21,500 to Gillen’s county-level campaign in the months leading up to the deal, New York State Board of Elections records show.
“As a long-time champion of Long Island, whether it’s supporting County Executive Bruce Blakeman or Laura Gillen, I’m proud of my bipartisan support of its leaders,” Rechler said in a statement to The Post.
Rechler’s generosity hasn’t stopped since Gillen set her sights on Congress.
In 2022, Rechler maxed out with a $2,900 donation to Gillen’s Democratic primary campaign in NY-04, and he and his wife added two contributions of $2,083 each ahead of the general election, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Gillen lost to Republican Anthony D’Esposito by 3.6 percentage points, a result she is hoping to reverse this time around.
Earlier this year, Gregg Rechler, Scott’s brother, contributed to $2,500 to Gillen, while another Rechler brother, Todd, gave $500.
RXR executive Joanne Minieri also pitched in $3,000 in June 2023.
The ties between Gillen and RXR have been present since at least 2017, when the firm’s chief operating officer, Richard Conniff, served on her Hempstead town supervisor transition team.
Two years earlier, Gillen’s brother Paul had facilitated the $1 billion sale of the landmark Helmsley Building to RXR — following the $110 million sale of the Standard Motors Building in Long Island City to the firm in 2014.
John Kaehny, executive director of the government watchdog Reinvent Albany, said Rechler and the firm’s donations to Gillen were par for the course and another example of a real estate titan wielding influence through their wallet.
“It’s standard give and take with big real estate getting big access and big influence,” Kaehny said.
Candidates or politicians who consider themselves reformers should say “I won’t take contributions from industry,” he added, particularly donors that have business before their government.
“The door is open for big donors to buy influence. The people with the money have undue influence. But it’s the law.”
Kaehny did note that the Nassau Hub had been vacant for years and both local politicians and the business community had long been brainstorming ways to develop the property.
The race between Gillen and D’Esposito is considered a “toss-up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, with internal campaign polls showing each candidate with a slight edge.
D’Esposito is currently battling an ethics scandal for hiring an alleged mistress to work in his Long Island district office.
The Gillen campaign did not respond to requests for comment.