{"id":361764,"date":"2026-10-01T11:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361764\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T11:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T11:08:16","slug":"madison-square-gardens-james-dolan-is-spending-big-on-new-yorks-governor-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/361764\/","title":{"rendered":"Madison Square Garden\u2019s James Dolan Is Spending Big on New York\u2019s Governor Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York governor, promised last November to erect a wall of spy gear, license plate readers, and biometric surveillance between the city and the suburbs. He has since received millions of dollars in donations from the family and businesses of James Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden, where a network of cameras capture the faces of (nearly<\/a>) every patron who walks in the arena and corporate security forces hunt for critics of the boss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dolan\u2019s support of Blakeman, the executive of suburban Nassau County, could be seen as something of a counterintuitive move in a state long run by Democrats, and in a year when political surveys are picking up indications of a blue wave. He\u2019s down by nine points or more<\/a> in most polls.<\/p>\n

Blakeman, however, backs data centers<\/a>, AI deepfakes<\/a>, Flock surveillance<\/a>, ICE<\/a>, private militias<\/a>, and president Donald Trump<\/a>. All of which makes him at least somewhat simpatico with Dolan, the Trump-allied magnate operating the sports world\u2019s best-known surveillance state. Dolan has long been a mercurial presence in the political game, and in fact, as Politico notes, he supported Blakeman\u2019s opponent<\/a>, Governor Kathy Hochul, during the last election. Dolan\u2019s sheer amount of spending in the race could also benefit him, even if his preferred candidate loses.<\/p>\n

Long an outsized force in sports and entertainment, Dolan now has a chance at a major political role, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cDolan can step into the breach and become the biggest player in [New York\u2019s] Republican politics, donor-wise, and I’m sure his people are smart enough to know that,\u201d one veteran strategist tells WIRED.<\/p>\n

James Dolan has given heavily before, including nearly a million dollars to Trump\u2019s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee in the 2020 election cycle. But the New York governor\u2019s race represents another level, a review of city, state, and federal databases shows.<\/p>\n

The Dolan family has given $108,000 to Blakeman\u2019s campaign directly and another $970,000 to the local Nassau County Republican party, which in turn has become Blakeman\u2019s single-largest contributor. But that\u2019s just for starters. MSG entities have contributed another $2 million to a political action committee supporting Blakeman\u2019s run. That super PAC, Strong and Safe New York Inc., which lists Madison Square Garden\u2019s top government relations executive as an officer, has raised $5.3 million overall. That helped make up for a 9-to-1 cash advantage that the governor\u2019s campaign reported over her challenger\u2019s at the last filing deadline in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for New York governor, promised last November to erect a wall of spy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[416,609,9,24,55,54,56,87,13369],"class_list":["post-361764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-elections","tag-government","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361764","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=361764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}