De Blasio fined nearly $48k for election finance violations

Mayor Bill de Blasio is being fined$47,778for violating campaign finance regulations regarding some of his expenses for his 2013 bid for office, election officials announced Thursday.

The City Campaign Finance Board director Amy Loprest read a list of the violations, which included “failing to report transactions, accepting over the limit contributions, failing to demonstrate spending was in the furtherance of the campaign, and making impermissible post-election expenditures.”

The items cited by the board included expenditures for a personal stylist for himself, his wife Chirlane McCray and his kids, Dante and Chiara.

The most serious violation cited by the board was the payment of $161,000 to the public relations firm Hilltop Strategies, which hired his campaign manager Bill Hyers, after de Blasio was already in office.

Other violations included $550 for makeup for de Blasio and his family on Election Night and $300 to fly his son Dante to Washington to be with him on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Another $600 labeled for “finance prospecting meetings,” in Santa Clara, California, was seen as suspicious because his daughter attends college in the city.

“While we strongly disagree with many of the CFB’s findings, we are pleased that the 2013 campaign audit is now complete,” de Blasio spokesman Dan Levitan told CBS New York.

The board also called into question why the mayor failed to explain the fundraising methods of several high-profile intermediaries, such as real estate investor Jona Rechnitz, currently is at the center of a City Hall corruption probe.

The board also fined former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn $14,000 on her failed bid for mayor in 2013, and City Comptroller Scott Stringer $10,500.