After maxing out to Sen. Eric Schneiderman’s AG campaign, two of the Manhattan Democrat’s biggest labor supporters – SEIU 1199 and 32 BJ – have ponied up $25,000 apiece to start a new political committee that will spend independently in a last-minute bid to help him win next Tuesday’s primary.

According to the state Board of Elections 24-hour notices list, both unions gave the cash to an entity called the New York Community Independent Campaign on Sept. 2. The NYCIC’s 11-day pre-primary filing shows no action (it was due last Friday, Sept. 3, but the cut-off date was Sept. 1).

In other words, we won’t have any idea how the cash is spent until well after the Sept. 14 election.

The maximum legal contribution for unions, which are treated under the Election Law as individuals, is $37,800. SEIU 1199 hit that mark prior to Schneiderman’s July 25 filing, and 32 BJ gave $30,000 in the first go-round, adding another $7,500 slightly later.

(There’s also another $50,000 in Schneiderman’s kitty from something called SEIU PEA State Fund, which doesn’t sound familiar to me).

The troika of 1199, HTC and 32 BJ, which make up a significant chunk of the so-called “progressive” arm of the Working Families Party (which tapped a placeholder in both the AG and gubernatorial races as the US attorney’s office wound down its probe), have been all in for Schneiderman.

The senator’s labor support – and he just announced an addition slew of endorsements from Local 2507 AFSCME (paramedics, EMTs and fire inspectors) and Local 802 of the 100,000-member American Federation of Musicians) – and its accompanying GOTV operation will likely give him an edge in what’s expected to be a low turnout primary.

But his union backing also has turned out to be a double-edged sword, providing fodder for the anti-Schneiderman set that believes he’s too close to special interests that run Albany to be able to clean up Albany as AG.

As Exhibit A, consider today’s column by Fred Dicker that calls out Schneiderman for paying his ex-wife and Albany lobbying “Queen” Jennifer Cunningham close to $900,000 for media consulting and ad placement services.

A source tells Dicker that Cunningham, the former 1199 political director long served as an unpaid advisor to Cuomo – dating back to the 2006 AG’s race, in fact – is essentially running Schneiderman’s campaign.

Ironically, the exact same coalition that is now working itself to the bone to get Schneiderman elected to replace Cuomo in the AG’s office was integral in putting him there in the first place. That didn’t make then-gubernatorial frontrunner Eliot Spitzer happy, albeit for much different reasons than why Cuomo doesn’t like the idea of having Schneiderman with him on the statewide ticket this November.

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