New York Metropolis’s Marketing campaign Finance Board dealt a blow to mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo on Friday, withholding $1.3 million in matching funds from him — however gave a giant lifeline to his opponent Adrienne Adams, clearing her for $2.4 million in crucial public money because the Democratic mayoral major election looms weeks away.
Adams, the Metropolis Council’s speaker and a average Democrat with enchantment amongst Black, outer-borough voters, is seen as having the potential to chip away at a few of Cuomo’s base, particularly as her standing within the polls has elevated recently. The infusion of matching funds, her first this election cycle, permits her to begin spending closely on issues like marketing campaign advertisements within the last weeks earlier than the June 24 major.
“With these funds, the campaign anticipates an aggressive, on-the-ground and over-the-airwaves blitz in the final stretch as momentum continues to build for Adrienne’s effective leadership,” Adrienne Adams marketing campaign spokeswoman Lupe Topp-Medina mentioned.
After voting to award the speaker $2.4 million in matching funds, the board members revealed they’ll withhold one other $675,419 in public money from Cuomo as a consequence of their suspicion that his marketing campaign improperly coordinated with Repair the Metropolis, a brilliant PAC boosting his run, on a tv advert it aired earlier this month. That comes on high of greater than $620,000 it earlier this month denied Cuomo for a similar cause, which means he’s now being disadvantaged of practically $1.3 million in public cash.
“The board continued an investigation into this matter, and based on the findings of this investigations thus far, continues to find reason that the expenditure was not independent,” board member Richard Davis mentioned of the advert.
Nonetheless, the CFB additionally voted to approve a recent infusion of $1.76 million for Cuomo’s marketing campaign. The $1.3 million he’s being denied corresponds to how a lot cash Repair the Metropolis spent on the advert discovered to be the product of improper coordination between the marketing campaign and the PAC.
“[Friday’s] preliminary ruling is a continuation of [the CFB’s] same unfounded position on the independent ad — 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 — as I’m sure Scott Stringer, Justin Brannan and others did when they launched similar pages,” Cuomo marketing campaign spokesperson Wealthy Azzopardi mentioned, including that the camp has a complete of $7.3 million in its coffers.
Earlier this month, the board gave Cuomo one other $1.5 million in matching money, which means he has now raked in additional than $3 million on high of the $3.9 million he has raised in non-public money. That places him near the $7.9 million spending cap on the first.
The board’s determination to present Speaker Adams matching funds couldn’t have come at a extra crucial time for her marketing campaign.
Whereas Adams’ eleventh hour mayoral bid has gained some momentum, with endorsements from Lawyer Common Leticia James and highly effective municipal employees union DC37, she was denied matching funds on the board assembly earlier this month for not but reaching the edge, making it troublesome to get the marketing campaign totally up and operating.
Whether or not or not the speaker obtained matching funds was a key query heading into Friday’s board assembly. If she didn’t qualify Friday, she wouldn’t have gotten one other shot till June 20, simply 4 days earlier than the first.
The paperwork she submitted within the earlier submitting interval to the CFB was riddled with errors, with about 70% of the claims the speaker submitted rejected as “invalid” due to paperwork snafus. Her workforce mentioned this week they had been assured she’d obtain the cash after elevating practically $400,000 within the newest fundraising interval.
With out the matching funds, Adams has thus far been unable to considerably ramp up her marketing campaign with TV advertisements.
The matching funds program is designed to place extra weight on native marketing campaign contributions by giving an 8-to-1 match for donations of as much as $250 from metropolis residents.
Mayor Adams sued the CFB on Tuesday for repeatedly denying him matching funds for his re-election bid partly due to considerations about his federal corruption indictment on marketing campaign finance fraud fees. Adams, who has dropped out of the Democratic major and is as an alternative looking for reelection as an unbiased in November’s basic election, mentioned within the go well with these denials are partly the rationale he’s not operating within the Democratic major.
Initially Revealed: Might 30, 2025 at 11:25 AM EDT
