Knicks owner bankrolled Hochul. Now he's the GOP's biggest donor in New York.

ALBANY, New York — Sports and entertainment mogul James Dolan has emerged as the largest GOP donor in the Empire State this election cycle after backing Gov. Kathy Hochul's last campaign.

Dolan, his company and family members donated $1.4 million this year to committees supporting Hochul's GOP foe, Bruce Blakeman, and have put millions more into super PACs that have started to support the Republican. The money represents crucial support after one of the party's biggest rainmakers stopped giving.

The money stands to have an impact far beyond the gubernatorial campaign: Republicans desperately need Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, to run a competitive race against Hochul in order to win several New York swing House seats that will potentially determine control of Congress and the final years of Donald Trump's presidency.

The giving also arrives during an advantageous moment for Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks, Rangers and the arena where they play — iconic Madison Square Garden. Trump, a Blakeman ally, is backing an $8 billion overhaul of New York City's Penn Station that will leave the Garden in place — potentially sparing Dolan a major headache.

The president and Blakeman were guests in Dolan's suite during game three of the NBA Finals. Dolan plans to bring his basketball team to the White House, the first time an NBA champion has done so during either Trump presidency.

"Historically he's leaned toward Republicans, but he hasn't always been about Republicans," said New York Conservative Party Chair Jerry Kassar. "He's been about what's best for his business interests."

 A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which Dolan leads as executive chairman and CEO, said the company supports "candidates that are interested in helping all New Yorkers."

"That cannot be done in a failing economy," the spokesperson added.

The company did not make Dolan available for an interview.

The political giving has included $2 million to MSG's super PAC, which has historically backed moderate Democrats, including Hochul. It also started transferring money to a separate super PAC that was launched last year to support Rep. Elise Stefanik's brief gubernatorial bid and is now running pro-Blakeman ads. Both of those groups list MSG's top government relations executive, Richard Constable, as an officer in paperwork filed with the state Board of Elections.

Constable, who served in the cabinet of former GOP New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's administration, declined to speak about the political activity when reached by phone. He did not return a follow-up text message.

Steve Fulop, the president of the private-sector boosting Partnership for New York City and a Hochul ally, said most business leaders stood behind her reelection.

"The business community is obviously not monolithic, but I'd say the majority of the prominent leaders in the business community are supporters of Governor Hochul," he said. "There are different people who choose to go elsewhere, but I'd definitely say the majority of them are supporters of the governor."

Dolan's contributions to boost Blakeman highlight Gotham's overlapping worlds of political influence, high-stakes real estate development and bright lights entertainment — an environment Trump himself marinated in for decades while crafting his image as an only-in-New York tycoon. The political giving underscores how Dolan, long a lightning rod for disgruntled fans and left-leaning officials, is willing to buck New York's Democratic leadership in favor of an underdog Republican with strong ties to Trump.

This financial support for Republicans is arriving at a critical time for a party that's been shut out of statewide office for 20 years. One of the New York GOP's most prominent donors, billionaire cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, has ceased his political giving after years of underwriting Republican efforts, The New York Times first reported. Lauder contributed more than $11 million to efforts boosting then-Rep. Lee Zeldin's gubernatorial campaign four years ago.

Republicans need the 70-year-old Blakeman to be a strong top of the ticket — the latest polling shows him down 10 percentage points among likely voters. New York is home to several swing House districts, including at least three seats in the bellwether Big Apple suburbs that stand to determine who controls the closely divided chamber.

If Blakeman does not mount a vigorous, well-funded effort to topple Hochul, swing seat House Republican candidates would potentially suffer — a disastrous outcome for the GOP nationwide.

Like much of the city's wealthy elite, Dolan has been uneasy with the rise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who has vowed to boost taxes on rich New Yorkers. The impresario feuded with Mamdani in the lead up to the Knicks' championship over security arrangements near the Garden.

Dolan's financial support for New York Republicans also carries significant risk. His world-famous arena benefits from a long-running state tax subsidy estimated to be worth as much as $42 million annually, and some Democratic state lawmakers have called for it to end. MSG's use of facial recognition technology has also drawn scrutiny from elected officials, including state Attorney General Letitia James.

The Blakeman donations are also a shift for Dolan, a mercurial billionaire who previously backed Democrats Andrew Cuomo and Hochul, his successor.

"There's a lot of people that supported Kathy Hochul four years ago that are incredibly disappointed in the way she's managed the state," Blakeman said when asked about Dolan's support. "This state is in a death spiral right now."

Trump did not make a specific ask of Dolan to aid Blakeman, according to a person familiar with the president's political team. But there is a benefit of pouring cash into a blue state by potentially forcing Democrats to spend more as a result instead of in more competitive areas of the country. And as was illustrated by the 2022 elections — when Republicans gained three seats in New York's congressional delegation as Zeldin put up a serious fight — avoiding a blowout can have a lot of down-ballot benefits.

"Do they have any real feeling that they could win the New York governor's race? No," said the person familiar with the president's political team, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly. "But are there congressional races we see competitive for New York? Of course there are. Sometimes that's a role that you want to see a donor play."

Dolan has been a top spender in New York politics for decades.

Most notably, he led the opposition to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's unsuccessful plan to build a new football stadium in Manhattan, seeking to lure the New York Jets back over the Hudson River, boosting the city's Olympics bid and providing some competition to MSG.

His former company Cablevision spent $13.3 million opposing the plan in 2004, still the priciest single-year lobbying campaign in New York's history. It followed that up by spending $12.7 million the following year.

Trump was on the opposite side — "It will be a tremendous boost for the city,"he said of a stadium in 2004. But he soon started to acknowledgethe site might not be plausible even as he brought gymnasts to Trump Tower to promote Bloomberg's Olympics bid. An hour after the stadium plan died, Dolan began floating a new plan for the location that entailed building residential towers with "his friend" Trump. Dolan's 2002 wedding was held at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida home.

The $8 billion plan to overhaul Penn Station, a bunker-like warren below Madison Square Garden, is a test of Dolan's political influence.

Dolan met with Trump earlier this year at the White House alongside real estate magnate Steven Roth, The New York Times reported. After the meeting, the president told The New York Post he supported a train station renovation plan that did not move the Garden from its longtime home on 8th Avenue. The project, though, will raze a performing arts theater inside the Garden complex.

Trump, who has floated the idea of having the renovated train station named for him, appeared weeks later in the owner's suite alongside Dolan and Blakeman for game three of the NBA Finals.

But during this time, Dolan was not on friendly terms with every politician.

While much of New York deliriously celebrated the Knicks' playoff run, Dolan feuded with Mamdani over security arrangements for the arena. He derided the mayor and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch as fake fans and too inexperienced to run the city.

The animus continued after the Knicks won their first championship in more than half a century.

At a City Hall celebration for the team, Mamdani went through a litany of Knicks history and highlights. Speaking after the mayor, Dolan pointedly said he didn't need to tell real fans about the team's lore — or that he needed their votes.

The mayor, who holds a 69 percent favorable rating among New York City voters in a recent Siena Research Institute poll, has signaled he will campaign for Hochul's reelection. Mamdani will need Hochul's support in Albany next year when he is once again expected to push for higher taxes on wealthy New Yorkers — a measure that must be signed off on by the state government.

"Everybody believes the governor has oversight of the mayor," said John Catsimatidis, a billionaire New York grocery store magnate and GOP political donor. "Whenever they get angry at him, they'll definitely get angry at the governor."

Hochul holds a significant financial advantage over Blakeman.

Her campaign, as well as two committees controlled by the state Democratic Party, reported a combined $43.4 million in cash — roughly ten times more than the $4.2 million Blakeman reported in July.

The Blakeman-aligned super PAC, which Dolan-affiliated entities have given at least $1 million in the last month, is expected to help close the gap. The group, Strong and Safe New York, has already spent money on TV ads knocking Hochul over high costs. Four years ago, a super PAC allied with Zeldin spent heavily on his behalf; he came within 6 points of unseating the Democratic governor.

"That PAC and a series of PACs involved did a good job of closing the funding gap and leveling the playing field with Hochul's campaign," said Chapin Fay, a spokesperson for the Blakeman-allied effort. "It's obviously playing out the same way this cycle."

From 2021 through 2024, members of the Dolan family gave Hochul $530,000, while Madison Square Garden donated $52,000.

Additionally, MSG's super PAC spent $580,000 boosting Hochul as she ran for her first full term in 2022.

But the super PAC money's now flowing in the opposite direction – as is the money Dolan's directly donating. His family has given $970,000 to the Nassau County GOP so far this year and $108,000 directly to Blakeman's campaign. James Dolan has also been the largest donor to the two party committees controlled by Republicans in the state Legislature, giving them $139,000 apiece.

The Garden also gave $2 million to its super PAC in July. It's started to transfer some of that to the pro-Blakeman Strong and Safe Group – which additionally reported $700,000 in donations directly from MSG.

"I don't know how much he intends to invest, but certainly he has resources and they're certainly welcomed to get the message out," Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said. "We have a winning message and it's a matter of having the dollars to get it out to New Yorkers."