Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 29
WABC: New York City mayoral candidates are continuing to push their agenda for office as they look for campaign donations and 7 On Your Side Investigates is looking into who made the cut for city matching funds and who did not.
Matching funds are a big deal and they can help make or break a campaign in New York City.
The Campaign Finance Board approves the funds in rounds each month, and we just learned which mayoral candidates will be getting taxpayer dollars to run their campaigns in the latest round of payments.
The board met Monday morning and Mayor Eric Adams’ name was not mentioned. He still has not been approved to receive matching funds due to the allegations laid out in his indictment and from having unresolved expenses from his first run for mayor.
However, Adams is getting more private donations on average than anyone else at nearly $1,000 a donation.
7 On Your Sides Investigates also learned City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams hasn’t raised enough money yet to quality for funds – but that will most likely change moving forward.
The primary is just three months away and four candidates are currently getting payments ranging from $49,000 to $31,000.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t on the list yet – that’s because he has until Monday to apply for the next round of funds that will be handed out in April. He self-reported raising more than $1.5 million in just under two weeks and more than $300,000 of that money makes him eligible to get matching funds.
The way matching funds works is for every dollar given to a city campaign, the city matches it with another $8 in taxpayer funds. So a $250 donation quickly turns into $2,000.
It’s a way to level the playing field for everyday New Yorkers that don’t have rich corporate backers to run for office.
But the candidates have to meet a whole set of criteria to make their donations grow – and every dollar is approved by the city’s Finance Board.
And experts say every dollar counts in the historic race for New York City mayor.
