Court: Putnam Conservative Party Broke State Law With Fake Mailers

By Holly Crocco

The Putnam Conservative Party last week admitted in court to altering photos on campaign mailers, in violation of state election law, and agreed to pay the legal fees for Republican County Executive Kevin Byrne after he sued the party over the circulation of materials that contained fake images of him posing with Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“There is no photo on the planet like that of me with Kathy Hochul,” Byrne said last week. “Satire is one thing, but using technology and artificial intelligence to manipulate photos to be deceptive… People actually believed they were real. That’s just wrong.”

Byrne is seeking another term in office in Tuesday’s election. Early in the season, the Conservative Party announced that it would not be backing him, and instead put up its own candidate for the county executive’s office. At first that candidate was Bill Spain, who is chairman of the Putnam Conservative Party. However, in August, the party switched its candidate and put up Tatiana Brahimi.

Brett Yarris is on the Democrat line.

On Oct. 20, Byrne filed suit against the party, accusing it of violating state elections law that requires politicians to label material they know to be “materially deceptive.”

At that time, Judge Gina Capone temporarily barred the Conservative Party from circulating the mailers without adding a disclosure that the image was manipulated.

Initially, Spain asked the judge to remove her injunction and dismiss the case, saying the image was of a group photo in which the other people were cropped out. However, on Oct. 29, he withdrew that motion and said the party would comply with the direction to make sure future mailings include the disclosure.

According to the court transcript, as part of the settlement, Spain agreed to acknowledge that the party violated state law.

“Spain, representing the Conservative Party in court, acknowledged on the record that the Putnam County Conservative Party ‘created materially deceptive media in violation of election law’ and that ‘the challenged images… depict a scenario that did not occur or was significantly altered,’” said Byrne. “This wasn't an innocent mistake or a misunderstanding of the law, and they have admitted that.”

Also in the court transcript, Spain accused Byrne’s lawyer John Murtagh of posturing.

“It appears Mr. Murtagh wants a headline or a newspaper article, hence the language contained in the stipulation,” he said. “I can do no more than to acknowledge that the mailer wet out without the appropriate disclaimer. It was a mistake made by volunteers. It will not happen again.”

New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar called the conduct described in the court proceedings as “deeply troubling.”

“The Conservative Party has always stood for the rule of law, honest elections, and accountability in government,” he said. “Those principles must apply equally to everyone, including our own party leadership… Political disagreements are one thing, but misleading voters and violating election law are entirely another. The people of Putnam County deserve transparency, integrity, and confidence in the electoral process.”