As a mayoral candidate, Maya Wiley famously said she’s “been black all my life” — but that’s cold comfort to her failed campaign’s unpaid vendors, who are owed nearly $1 million, including a black-owned business that now has to lay off employees.
“This could break my business,” the vendor told The Post, speaking this week on condition of anonymity because he signed a contract with the campaign that bars him from speaking to the media.
“That was revenue I was waiting for to be able to pay my staff. It means I have to make some cutting decisions when it comes to staff,” he said about his five-figure invoice.
The business owner said he’s looking at two to three layoffs.
Wiley owes 28 individuals and companies a combined $999,664.51, including over $500,000 to GPS Impact, a Des Moines, Iowa-based political communications company for ads and fundraising; $40,320 to Bumperactive, an Austin, TX-based company for campaign merchandise; and $211 to the United States Postal Service for postage and a P.O. box rental, according to Campaign Finance Board records.
AP
She was also $4,000 in debt to Shams DaBaron, a formerly homeless man now living in a Harlem apartment, for “policy and field” work but paid him on July 13 — a day after the CFB filing was due, according to her spokesman Eric Koch.
DaBaron told The Post he was unbothered by the late payment.
“I’m Maya for life. I do what I do for the people that’s what matters. I don’t it for the money,” he said.
But another vendor, a consultant who’s waiting on a significant sum, called Wiley’s million-dollar campaign debt “straight up malpractice” on the part of her campaign managers.
“Some debt is OK,” the vendor said. “It’s not OK to owe $1 million. For me, I was more disappointed than anythi
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