A $9,200 portrait, $20K for decorations: Questions raised about Frank Seddio campaign spending

In February 2024, the campaign committee for city Board of Election member Frank Seddio shelled out $5,000 to a Norwalk, Conn. artist for a portrait of Seddio himself now hanging in Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court, campaign finance records show. Last month, the committee made a second payment of $4,200.

Several years before that, in 2018 and 2019, Friends of Frank Seddio spent $20,300 on elaborate Christmas displays from a Brooklyn company to decorate the exterior of Seddio’s office building on Flatlands Ave.

The portrait and the holiday decorations headline a list of some $175,000 in expenditures by Friends of Frank Seddio and the Kings County Democratic County Committee when Seddio was leading it that raise questions, either because they could be seen as benefitting Seddio personally or l