A constituent in the 4th Congressional District said she filed multiple campaign finance complaints against Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park), including an allegation that he has subsidized more than $20,000 for his federal campaign committee.
Merrick resident Helene M., who wished to keep her last name anonymous, said she filed the complaints April 4 in an effort to inform fellow residents of the alleged violations.
“[It is] reprehensible for my representative to be breaking ethics rules and I wanted…people to be made aware of it because I think it would upset a lot of people and they would pay attention more to the election coming up,” Helene said.
The alleged complaint filings come ahead of the representative’s race for re-election. The Nassau County Republican Committee officially nominated D’Esposito in February as the party’s nominee in the race for the 4th Congressional District seat.
“Team D’Esposito always takes all necessary steps to operate in accordance with election law, and we will vigorously challenge this desperate smear campaign led by partisans who know they can’t win at the ballot box,” Matthew Capp, campaign spokesperson, told Blank Slate Media in a statement.
Helene said she filed three complaints in total to the Federal Elections Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics.
She alleged that in addition to the subsidized funding, D’Esposito used his campaign social media accounts to post official government communications and sent fundraising emails from his campaign committee asking for support in official government business.
Representatives from the FEC and the Office of Congressional Ethics said they were unable to confirm that the complaints were filed because it was confidential information.
This is not the first time D’Esposito has faced pushback on his fundraising efforts.
The FEC questioned D’Esposito on his campaign fundraising in 2022, when he first ran for Congress, asking about excessive contributions, funds from unregistered committees and possible illegal donations from corporations, Newsday reported in 2023.
The representative’s campaign finance committee responded with amendments to fund designation, refunded contributions questioned by the FEC and said that the contributions from unregistered committees did not come from corporations, according to Newsday.
Helene is a retired teacher who called herself an “active Democrat” and said she has donated to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the past.
She said she contacted the DCCC to bring D’Esposito’s social media posts, which she claimed are violations of the House ethics rules, to the committee’s attention.
She said D’Esposito posted about a Republican spending bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, and then posted a nearly identical tweet on his campaign account.
She said that D’Esposito sent an email discussing homeland security from his government email address and then asked for campaign donations in the same email.
“I really want to get [D’Esposito] out,” Helene said. The former teacher said she supports Laura Gillen.
When Helene contacted members of the DCCC, the DCCC informed her about the alleged $20,000 in subsidized funding, Helene said.
“Anthony D’Esposito has proven time and again that he caves to corruption and extremism, which is why voters across New York’s Fourth Congressional District will hold him accountable this November,” DCCC Spokesperson Ellie Dougherty told Blank Slate Media in a statement.
The 4th Congressional District race is one of the top competitive congressional races in the country, according to Cook Political Report ratings.
The race is a rematch between D’Esposito and Laura Gillen, a former Hempstead town supervisor and Democrat who lost to D’Esposito in 2022.