Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 28
Mayor Eric Adams maintains a massive fundraising lead over his potential reelection challengers — but they are on track to finance serious campaigns.
Adams also reported spending $209,000 from his legal defense fund in the last three months — a reminder of the federal investigation into his 2021 campaign that looms over the upcoming race.
Adams’ campaign brought in $1.1 million from 1,472 donors over the last six months, according to a filing published Monday with the New York City Campaign Finance Board.
“The mayor’s campaign has continued to draw strong support from New Yorkers,” Adams’ campaign counsel Vito Pitta said in a statement.
The Democratic mayor has been fundraising at a furious pace — he also reported on Monday raising about $375,000 for the Eric Adams Legal Defense Trust, which he formed in November for lawyers’ fees connected to the investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
His campaign fundraising could serve as its own defense against opponents. When factoring in the $4.1 million in matching funds that Adams has already reported he will qualify to unlock in December, and his $3 million on hand, he’s nearing his current $7.3 million spending limit set for the primary by CFB rules.
That is to say, Adams is nearly done fundraising for the primary.
Adams continued to receive contributions from the city’s moneyed elite over the past six months. His campaign filing showed contributions from billionaire education activist Merryl Tisch, real estate developers in the Zeckendorf family, and Anthony Scaramucci, an investor and former staffer to Donald Trump, who has since turned on the Republican presidential nominee.
Adams’ filing showed a $2,100 contribution from businessperson Lenoard Blavatnik on the same day in April that he met with Adams on Zoom to show support for the mayor sending in the NYPD to deal with pro-Palestinean protesters on Columbia University’s campus, as The Washington Post first reported.
Source: Politico
