{"id":229241,"date":"2026-05-12T23:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229241\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:15:07","slug":"fanduel-super-pac-enters-uws-assembly-duel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229241\/","title":{"rendered":"FanDuel super PAC enters UWS Assembly duel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upper West Side Assembly candidate Eli Northrup has blasted his opponent Stephanie Ruskay for getting support from Westside Progress, the super PAC partly funded by one of the city\u2019s \u201cworst landlords,\u201d Wendy Eisenberg of A&amp;E Real Estate.<\/p>\n<p>Now the super PAC New York Future, funded by online gambling giants DraftKings and FanDuel, is echoing Northrup and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ads\/library\/?id=1607623157621233\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">attacking Ruskay<\/a> for taking money from real estate developers. And Northrup\u2019s scrambling <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EliNorthrup\/status\/2054235589705101445?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">to denounce<\/a> the negative digital ad.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI condemn it. I don\u2019t want it. I didn\u2019t ask for it. I don\u2019t think there should be (independent expenditure) spending opposing me or supporting me,\u201d Northrup told City &amp; State Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This open seat race to replace Assembly Member Micah Lasher is now the first legislative race to attract dueling outside spenders \u2013 and a lot more spending is expected before the June 23 Democratic primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ruskay slammed New York Future\u2019s spending \u2013 and her opponent. \u201cEli claims to be above special interests \u2013 but he\u2019s proving to be a hypocrite,\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/stephanieruskay\/status\/2054326006501019787?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">said in a statement on X.<\/a> \u201cVoters will reject the candidate supported by the massive, anti-worker corporations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But at a candidate forum last week hosted by Goddard Riverside, Ruskay accepted the Westside Progress super PAC canvassing on her behalf. She said she wanted Citizen United to be overturned, but in the meantime she won\u2019t let independent expenditures influence her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been very important to me to make sure I am constantly telling people who I am,\u201d Ruskay said. \u201cAnd don\u2019t invest in me if you don\u2019t want me to be who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Westside Progress \u2013 led by Manhattan lawyer and city Board of Elections commissioner Marc Landis \u2013 has turned its attention to Ruskay after boosting Carl Wilson in last month\u2019s City Council special election. Landis said the Uptown race is the only one it\u2019s planning to spend on, and the PAC doesn\u2019t want to go negative. Westside Progress has so far been largely funded by another PAC, Next NYC \u2013 which is funded by wealthy businesspeople from various industries, including Eisenberg, Peter Lowy of Westfield and investor Amanda Eilian.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>New York Future, meanwhile, has reported spending in legislative primaries across the state. The online gaming super PAC has sent mailers for pro-gambling state Sens. Toby Ann Stavisky and Joe Addabbo. It\u2019s also running online ads boosting Assembly Members Erik Dilan, Jeff Dinowitz and Clyde Vanel and Assembly candidates Karen Hoak, who\u2019s running to succeed Assembly Member Jonathan Rivera in Western New York, and Nathaniel Hezekiah, who\u2019s running for retiring Assembly Member Vivian Cook\u2019s seat with Rep. Greg Meeks\u2019 support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Upper West Side Assembly candidate Eli Northrup has blasted his opponent Stephanie Ruskay for getting support from Westside&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1414,3535,9,24,11,10,49,51,50,87],"class_list":["post-229241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-campaigns-elections","tag-micah-lasher","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229241","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=229241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}