Legislators hear from dead people amid Uber-backed lobbying push

ALBANY — Assemb. Charles Lavine has gotten thousands of emails this year about issues facing his district.

One that got his attention was from Jon Dolecki, asking Lavine to support changes to the state’s auto insurance laws championed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the trucking industry and Uber.

He thought it was strange, because Dolecki, a friend and former longtime Glen Cove baseball coach, died in February 2025. He was 77.

"Imagine my surprise when I got an email from him supporting the insurance reforms that Uber appears to be so interested in," Lavine (D-Glen Cove) said.

Over the past two weeks, legislators across the state have received emails from dead people, emails with riders’ old contact information or information from several family members combined into one email.

The emails are from a lobbying group bankrolled by Uber called Citizens for Affordable Rates, which has spent more than $9.4 million since the end of January, according to public records.

The ride-hailing service is engaged in a multimillion-dollar blitz as part of its lobbying efforts to change the state’s auto insurance rules. Uber has sent more than 100,000 form emails from riders and drivers to state legislators over the past several weeks, urging them to support the changes.

An Uber spokesperson said its riders have to opt-in to its lobbying effort by filling out their information and agreeing to send an email to their elected representative. He added that Uber’s email lobbying campaign is separate from the one Citizen for Affordable Rates is running.

The emails in question include a link to Citizens for Affordable Rates’ website and have different language than those that come from Uber.

In one case, an email sent in support of the reforms used the first name of a third grade girl from the Rochester area with her mother’s address and phone number, according to a copy of the email provided to Newsday.

A spokesman for CAR said the faulty emails were "rare technical anomalies" and that the group is reviewing them. CAR also criticized groups that oppose the changes, such as the state Trial Lawyers Association.

"Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers have used our email program to demand $200 in auto insurance savings," CAR said in a statement. "It’s clear these groups will do anything to protect a system that charges New Yorkers the highest insurance rates in the country. We are focused on lowering them."

Technical glitch?

One possible explanation is the emails are the result of family members who share devices or web browsers that auto-populate contact information. CAR believes the underlying submissions are real actions that were manually submitted.

John Kaehny, executive director of Reinvent Albany, said those emails suggest the political action group might be relying on a database to send emails on behalf of customers.

That would be problematic because they could be sent on behalf of people who didn’t agree with CAR’s message, he said. If that were the case, Kaehny said it raises questions of potentially fraudulent behavior or violations of consumer law.

"This is a big surprise to me because Uber’s previous opt-in system has been very effective. So why they would do something like this is mystifying," he said.

Multiple legislators told Newsday they reached out to constituents who supposedly signed on to the form emails from CAR, only to receive confused replies questioning why an elected representative had reached out to them.

Assemb. Jen Lunsford (D-Perinton) said the volume of auto insurance reform emails changed in the last few weeks. What was a trickle of three to four emails a day became a stream, with more than 1,000 pouring into her inbox, she said.

Lunsford, who worked as a trial attorney before being elected to the Assembly, said the sudden outpouring raised suspicions.

"I've never gotten this volume, and the batching of them was very unusual," she said.

Lunsford called a few people she recognized from the recent emails. All of them except for one who sent an email in March told her they had not signed up to send an email.

"I have spoken to probably 10 people at this point who are from this suspicious batch," she said. "None of them sent it."

Lunsford’s staff searched some of the names online and found people who had died. One person has been in the Monroe County jail for the past month.

Unusual pattern

When Lunsford contacted other state legislators, she found they had a similar experience.

Lavine, who was first elected in 2004, said with a mass email campaign like the ones Uber and Citizens for Affordable Rates are running he expects a certain percentage of them to be fake.

Lavine added he doesn’t put much stock in the campaigns. Instead, a lobbying effort is much more persuasive when it comes from an individual constituent email or phone call, he said.

"However, I have never gotten an email from a friend who is no longer living," he said.

Dolecki coached Glen Cove’s baseball team to 532 wins in 34 years, including three Nassau County titles and the school’s only state championship in 1986.

The school named its baseball field after him two months after he died.

Assemb. Paula Kay (D-Rock Hill) said regardless of where the emails are coming from, it is clear they’re not coming from constituents.

Kay said keeping up with the deluge of emails was preventing her staff from working on other issues or helping constituents.

"It just doesn't help the cause," she said.

One of the emails Kay received was purportedly from George Serrano, a retired White Plans police detective and former Wallkill town supervisor.

Serrano said he never agreed to send an email to Kay about auto insurance and if he wanted to contact her, he would call.

"As a past public official myself, it is disturbing that someone would use my name on something without knowing what my stand is on it," he said.

Impact on Uber

For Uber, the proposals to lower auto insurance costs could have a major impact on its bottom line.

The company is the largest purchaser of auto insurance in the country, with 27% of a rider's fee going toward covering the company's insurance costs, according to a spokesperson.

Lunsford said she supports most of the changes the governor wants to make, including cracking down on staged car crashes and other types of fraud.

Talks between Hochul’s negotiators and lawmakers are largely centered on two provisions of her proposed plan to change the law around how damages are apportioned in lawsuits in which multiple parties are at fault.

But Lunsford also questioned whether the proposals Hochul and Uber are pushing would really save drivers much. She noted a flyer that went out recently said state legislators were standing in the way of reforms that would save drivers $200 a year.

"We have not gotten anyone to give us a number on what the expected savings are or when those savings would be realized," Lunsford said. "And you're telling me you spent this much money to save rate payers, $16 a month?"