{"id":206334,"date":"2026-04-22T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206334\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:06:08","slug":"head-of-nyc-social-justice-youth-group-promotes-dem-candidate-in-email-blast-then-cancels-event-when-asked-by-the-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/206334\/","title":{"rendered":"Head of NYC ‘social justice’ youth group promotes Dem candidate in email blast \u2014 then cancels event when asked by The Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

The co-director of a Bronx \u201csocial justice\u201d youth arts nonprofit improperly used his official email to campaign for a Democratic candidate<\/a> \u2014 then canceled a planned event when confronted about the transgression.<\/p>\n

Jason Duchin, co-director of DreamYard, sent an email blast Tuesday to boost a town hall event with former state Assemblyman Michael Blake<\/a>, who\u2019s looking to unseat incumbent US Rep. Ritchie Torres in a June primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is running for Congress to make the Bronx more affordable, safer and fairer to all,\u201d Duchin wrote in the official email of Blake, who sits on DreamYard\u2019s board of directors. \u201cJoin us for a Zoom conservation with Michael Wednesday April 22nd from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Duchin, co-director of DreamYard, used his official email account to promote a town hall event for Democratic congressional candidate Michael Blake. Larry Busacca<\/p>\n

It\u2019s illegal for the group, which takes in millions of dollars in public funds, to directly be involved in political campaigning.<\/p>\n

Duchin fessed up to the improper act when reached by The Post on Wednesday, saying he had goofed by sending the campaign pitch from his work email.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know. I screwed up and meant to send it from my personal account,\u201d Duchin said. \u201cAppreciate the heads up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then said he canceled the Blake event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never want to be in a position of there being a perception that my views speak in any way for the organization where I work,\u201d Duchin said.\u00a0\u201cBecause of my email mistake, we have cancelled the event.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blake sits on DreamYard\u2019s board of directors. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

Public records show that DreamYard has a total of five active city contracts with the Departments of Education and Youth and Community Development worth more than $5 million.<\/p>\n

The Internal Revenue Service clearly forbids not-for-profit charitable, tax-exempt groups like DreamYard from using resources to directly or indirectly take part in political campaigns.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cContributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity,\u201d the IRS rule states.\u00a0\u201cViolating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blake is running to unseat incumbent Rep. Ritchie Torres. AP<\/p>\n

The Torres campaign declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Blake ran in the crowded primary for mayor of the Big Apple<\/a> last year and previously lost to Torres in the 2020 Democratic primary for Congress.<\/p>\n

Torres is seeking a fourth term in the 15th House District that stretches across parts of the south and north Bronx.<\/p>\n

The district includes the neighborhoods of Allerton, Bathgate, Baychester, Belmont, Claremont, Fordham, Melrose, Morrisania, Morris Park, Mott Haven, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Tremont, Olinville, Norwood, Highbridge, Van Nest, West Farms, Williamsbridge and Woodlawn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The co-director of a Bronx \u201csocial justice\u201d youth arts nonprofit improperly used his official email to campaign for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,2132,57,9,24,63,2457,129,131,130,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-206334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-democrats","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-ritchie-torres","15":"tag-the-bronx","16":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","17":"tag-the-bronx-news","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}