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A political action committee called Ending Homelessness and Building a Better NYC has spent $145,000 to support Wilfredo López’s campaign for the District 8 City Council race, more than all other candidates have received in independent contributions combined.
A version of this story was originally published by the Mott Haven Herald, a student-powered news outlet at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism covering the Bronx neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris.
Kaliris Salas, a longtime East Harlem resident, was scrolling through Instagram when she saw a post that stopped her cold. Next, she filed a complaint with New York City’s Campaign Finance Board.
“I’m like, wait, hold up. They’re doing food distributions with palm cards?” Salas recalled thinking. She was watching a video that showed people affiliated with Ending Homelessness and Building a Better NYC, a Political Action Committee funded by Wall Street financial titan Mike Jenkins distributing Wilfredo López campaign literature on top of egg cartons at a food giveaway in East Harlem.
Salas noticed that none of this PAC spending had been reported to New York City’s Campaign Finance Board. “I was like, you guys are not recording any of this.”
The subsequent revelation that the PAC has spent $145,000 to support López’s campaign over the last few months has shaken up the District 8 City Council race. This amount—spent on things like mailers, open bar events, food giveaways—is more than all other candidates have received in independent contributions combined.
In a promotional video posted to its Instagram on April 30, the PAC claimed it planned to give away 1 million pounds of produce at events in NYCHA communities in East Harlem and the Bronx District 8 neighborhoods of Mott Haven, Melrose and Port Morris, all of it distributed in Wil López tote-bags.
The CEO of the PAC, Tomas Ramos, also filed legal objections through the Board of Elections to five candidates in the race: Nicholas Reyes, Elsie Enacarnacion, Clarisa M. Alayeto, Raymond Santana and Federico Colon.
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Of Salas’ complaint, Ending Homelessness and Building a Better NYC PAC spokesman Michael Brady said, “Ms. Salas’s matter has already been addressed with NYC CFB and EHBB’s filings are a matter of public record. It’s disappointing to see old political forces trying to distract from the work that truly matters. But we’re not here for headlines—we’re here for the community. In New York City, power belongs to the people—not kings, queens, or anyone clinging to the past.”
Raymond Santana has made the PAC’s spending a centerpiece of his campaign, posting memes about the issue on Instagram, and bringing it up repeatedly at a District 8 candidate forum on April 26.
“I take no money from special interest lobbies,” López responded when the forum moderator asked candidates how they are financing their campaigns.
That response earned an uproar as audience members shouted “1.6 [million],” referencing the total contributions that Ending Homelessness and Building a Better NYC has received from Jenkins since 2024. Santana incorrectly claimed that the PAC spent all that money supporting López through his 406,000-follower Instagram platform. In fact, it reported spending $145,000 on López.
“I don’t have a super PAC behind me,” Santana declared, standing up out of his seat.
“[López] is going to sell out the South Bronx and East Harlem,” he added.
Building a Better NYC CEO Tomas Ramos also went on social media to jab back at Santana, claiming he was a “fraud” and “convicted felon” in a now-deleted Instagram comment under Santana’s post.
Of the PAC’s spending, López said via his campaign, “I am dedicated to running my race and serving the people of our community from the ground up, by knocking on doors and meeting my neighbors where they are. Nobody will ever be able to buy my vote. I have always and will always fight for our working families and communities.”
López also received support from a Jenkins-funded PAC when he ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2022. When the news sire New York Focus asked López how he felt when he found out the PAC was going to support that run, he said, “I was like, ‘That’s freaking awesome, I appreciate the help.'”
Jenkins’ history in the Bronx
It is unclear why Michael Jenkins is so interested in the politics of East Harlem and the South Bronx. Jenkins is one of the founders of Jane Street, a quantitative trading firm that generates billions in profit a year and regularly pays its brainy 23-year-old hires—including at one point Sam Bankman-Fried—$250,000 base salaries. In 2023, the firm traded as much stock in a year as the entire London Stock Exchange. Jane Street did not respond to a request for comment.
But Jenkins is starting to accumulate history in the area.
In 2020, he supported Ramos’ unsuccessful run for congress via a PAC and bankrolled $1.1 of the $1.7 million Ramos donated to the Bronx Health Care System via the non-profit he runs, which includes Betances Health Center, during that campaign.
In 2022, a different PAC funded by Jenkins paid lawyer Aaron Foldenauer to challenge the signatures of Democratic Assembly candidate George Alvarez. In this year’s District 8 race, Foldenauer challenged the signatures of every candidate but López. These challenges, whatever their outcome, force other candidates to spend time in court defending themselves, rather than campaigning.
Alayeto was initially removed from the ballot due to legal challenges from the PAC on April 28, but was reinstated on appeal this week.
The whistleblower Salas sees Jenkins’ intervention in the race as part of a larger pattern.
“In the last couple of years, these hedge funders have been coming into our neighborhoods, claiming that they want to do good work. But they’re very conservative, right-wing, like ‘follow my instructions, people.’”
Additional reporting by Gabriela Flores and Kennedy Sessions.
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