Chris Bragg is reporting for the Times Union that Gov. Kathy Hochul insists that when her administration paid a vendor $637 million for COVID-19 tests, she was unaware that vendor was a campaign donor. "I was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me," Hochul told reporters in July. "I don't keep track of that. My team, they have no idea.” But a month before her administration struck the deals, records show, the company's founder threw an in-person campaign fundraiser for Hochul. According to her campaign disclosure forms, the November 22 fundraiser was thrown by Charlie Tebele, founder of Digital Gadgets LLC. A month later, the company would receive $637 million in payments from the state government to facilitate the purchase of 52 million at-home, rapid coronavirus tests. Hazel Crampton-Hays, a spokesperson for Hochul, said recently the governor was not involved in day-to-day procurement decisions. "She simply instructed her team to purchase as many available tests as possible to meet the tremendous need across the state, ... As we have always said, campaign donations do not have any influence on government decisions and we reject any implication otherwise," Crampton-Hays said. The Tebele family has donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, and Tebele has thrown her two campaign fundraisers: One a month before the purchase orders were executed, and one on April 10, two weeks after the payments were complete. According to Digital Gadgets, Tebele never spoke to the Hochul campaign about providing the COVID-19 tests. The company declined to say how it came into contact with the Hochul administration concerning the sale. The governor's campaign declined to answer questions about any interaction between its staff or the governor with the company. In November, a younger member of the Tebele family began working as a paid intern for Hochul’s campaign fundraising staff. In mid-December, Hochul’s campaign made its first payment to James Tebele, an undergraduate at New York University; he was later hired to fill a full-time staff position as a campaign "finance associate." Read the full story in the Times Union.