NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Responding to recent reports that New Rochelle Council Member Louis Trangucci (R-District 1) failed to file required campaign finance disclosure documents campaign officials blamed the Westchester County Board of Elections.
“The BOE usually sends us a card as a reminder to file each report, but we never received it for this one (the-32 day Pre-General disclosure report) which only is filed every four years,” Campaign Treasurer Theresa Trangucci told Talk of the Sound.
In an angry Facebook rant posted by Diana Trangucci, Theresa Trangucci, Lou’s wife, accused Talk of the Sound of fabricating stories. She did not provide any examples.
Philip Sidoti, a real estate agent at Century 21 Marciano, is the son-in-law of Lou and Theresa Trangucci, joined his in-laws in attacking Talk of the Sound, accusing published Robert Cox of a “personal vendetta” against Lou Trangucci.
“Let’s use the power of the news to keep people truthfully informed without,” said Sidoti. “Misleading words and pictures that without knowing or being involved would paint a bad picture.”
Sidoti did not cite any misleading words or pictures.
Sidoti dismissed Trangucci campaign finance irregularities as “two human mistakes” (there were three, so far) and claimed (falsely) that “the issues were addressed and fixed in a timely fashion”. He dismissed them as honest mistakes”.
What no one involved in the campaign is disputing is that after years of criticizing Mayor Noam Bramson for taking money from real estate developers, Trangucci is now taking money from real estate developers as well.
There have been, so far, three campaign finance issues: (1) accepting a campaign contribution of $2,500 in excess of the $1,000 limit on City Council races in New Rochelle; (2) failure to file a required 24 notice on campaign contributions in excess of $1,000; (3) failure to file 32 day notice by the October deadline.
Trangucci waited weeks to return $1,500 of the $2,500 campaign contribution and did so only after he was ordered to do so by the Republican Party. Trangucci has still never filed a 24 hour notice. Trangucci was 14 days late on his 32 day notice.
The Trangucci Campaign has claimed they were unaware of the October 4th deadline for the 32 day Pre-General campaign finance report until Talk of the Sound’s October 11th article on their failure to file. That does not explain why they waited another week to file on October 18th.
What does explain the delay is criticism directed at Lou Trangucci at a Tuesday October 15th meeting of the Republican Party of New Rochelle. Trangucci filed 3 days later.
Trangucci reported 4 campaign donations in his 32 day Pre-General campaign finance report: 3 individual contributions totaling $225 and one corporate donation from La Canasta Grande for $700.
