With the mayoral primary less than a month away, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams got some good news from the city Campaign Finance Board Friday while former Gov. Andrew Cuomo found himself once again penalized for allegedly colluding with a well-funded outside spending group.
Two weeks ago the board denied Adams her request for public matching funds, finding she hadn’t reached the fundraising threshold to be eligible. On Friday they determined that she is now good to go, awarding her just over $2 million.
Cuomo, on the other hand, lost out once again on his full request for matching funds after the board ruled that his campaign continued to break campaign finance rules by coordinating with an independent spending committee — the second time the board has penalized him on that basis.
At its May 12 meeting, the board awarded Cuomo’s campaign $1.5 million in public funds but withheld another $622,000 — the amount an independent expenditure group, Fix The City, reported spending on an ad plugging Cuomo’s candidacy for City Hall. The CFB determined the text of the ad was nearly identical to text on a page on the campaign’s website, indicating the two committees had worked together in violation of board rules.
During Friday’s meeting, the board revealed that despite that sanction, Fix The City had continued to run the same ad, reporting another $675,000 in expenditures. As a result, the board voted to award Cuomo’s campaign $1.7 million in funds but withhold another $675,000 he’d requested.
Board member Richard Davis stated, “The board continued an investigation into this matter and based on the findings of this investigation thus far, it continues to find a reason to believe that the expenditure was not independent of the Cuomo campaign.” Davis also noted that the investigation is continuing.
Coordination between campaigns and independent spending committees is forbidden because it’s a way to get around rules limiting contributions campaigns. Permitted by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United decision, independent expenditure committees like Fix The City can take donations in unrestricted amounts of tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, while campaign contributions are capped at $2,100 for candidates participating in the matching funds program.
Fix the City has reported nearly $10 million in donations to the CFB as of Friday and spending of more than $5.5 million, all of it on TV and internet ads promoting Cuomo. Its top donors, each giving $250,000, include investors Bill Ackman and Daniel Loeb, media mogul Barry Diller, and real estate players Peter Fine, Scott Rechler and Two Trees Management.
Shortly after the board announced its ruling, Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said the campaign is disputing both findings and has submitted documentation to CFB auditors “that we believe demonstrates that this was not a violation of the regulations.”
“Today’s preliminary ruling is a continuation of their same unfounded position on the independent ad,” he said. “Our campaign has operated in full compliance with the campaign finance laws and rules. Everything on our website was reviewed and approved by our legal team in advance of publication.”
The matching funds program awards $8 for every $1 raised up to $250 per donation from New York City residents and is designed to reduce the advantage candidates with deep-pockets have in elections.
For Adams, the award of $2 million in matching funds is a big boost. All the other major mayoral candidates running in the June 24 Democratic primary have to date received millions of dollars in public funds, including Comptroller Brad Lander, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn), former comptroller Scott Stringer and businessman Whitney Tilson.
Two candidates, state Senator Jessica Ramos and former Assemblymember Michael Blake, continued to come up short, denied any matching funds once again at Friday’s board meeting. The CFB determined both Ramos and Blake had not raised enough to qualify.
