Dan Cerutti speaks last month during a CBS 6 debate between the four candidates running for Albany mayor in the Democratic Party primary. Cerutti is defending the use of a PAC for his campaign, saying donors are largely people who know him and care about the future of Albany.

Dorcey Applyrs, Albany's auditor, says voters should be wary of large donations made to a political action committee supporting Dan Cerutti, one of her opponents in the city's Democratic primary.

Earlier this month, Democratic voters in Albany received an impressive — and undoubtedly expensive — multipage mailer that praised mayoral candidate Dan Cerutti. Common Sense Albany, a political action committee, paid for it.

The mailer and its sponsor widened eyes, to put it mildly, in the Dorcey Applyrs campaign, which immediately set out to learn more about a potential new force in the race.

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“It was alarming,” Applyrs, the city auditor, told me. “We wanted to make sure that voters understood what was happening.”

What came next was a text and email blast from Applyrs claiming Cerutti had been “bought” by “big pharma, hedge funds and outsiders” who “don’t live in Albany,” including, among others, Jonathan Jacobson, a........

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