[13] Squadron served as a consultant to New York City's Department of Education and worked as a staffer on Congressman Anthony Weiner's 2005 mayoral campaign.

[14] He received the endorsements of Schumer, Congressman Anthony Weiner, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

[15] Assisted by family friends, Schumer supporters, and an aggressive campaign strategy,[16] Squadron defeated incumbent state senator Martin Connor and took 54% of the vote.

[19] Squadron won reelection in 2014 in a landslide over Republican candidate Wave Chan; and he ran unopposed in 2016, running on both the Democratic and Working Families Party lines.

[28] Squadron also unsuccessfully pushed to close the "LLC Loophole," which allows nearly unlimited, often anonymous campaign contributions to flood the political process.

[4] He cited "heavily invested special interests" and "cynical political deals," adding: "And the status quo has proven extraordinarily durable: It barely shuddered when the leaders of both legislative chambers [Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver] were convicted of corruption."

[35] The couple were set up by Schumer and his wife, Iris Weinshall, for whom Weinstein worked as chief of staff at the New York City Department of Transportation.