Late Candidate Hirschfeld Campaign Fined

WASHINGTON – The failed 2004 Senate campaign of the late New York millionaire Abe Hirschfeld was fined $66,750, federal election officials said Tuesday.

The Federal Election Commission announced the civil penalties for four failures to file campaign finance reports — in April, July and October of 2004 and just before the general election.

The FEC decreed the penalties against his campaign, Honest Abe Hirschfeld for United States Senate. A lawyer for Hirschfeld's family could not immediately be reached by telephone for comment on Tuesday.

Hirschfeld died Aug. 9, ending a bizarre 85-year journey that began in his birthplace of Turnow, Poland, and led him to New York, where he made a fortune in real estate before embarking on a series of ill-fated political campaigns and one spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to purchase The New York Post.

The parking garage magnate's 1993 attempt to purchase the paper ended after the staff produced an issue trashing him.

Hirschfeld ran unsuccessfully for New York lieutenant governor, Manhattan borough president, state comptroller and U.S. senator.

Even after he was convicted in 2000 of looking for a hit man to murder his business partner, he launched another bid for the Senate in 2004.