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Wiley Misses Cutoff As Stringer and Adams Score Public Funds In Record-Setting Payout
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 16, 2021
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Seth Wenig/AP/Shutterstock
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 16, 2021
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Three New York City mayoral candidates expected to receive public matching funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board on Tuesday. One did not. The news by omission that mayoral candidate Maya Wiley did not qualify for public matching funds this cycle ran counter to her campaign’s expectations after filing her disclosure statement last month.
Eric Adams received $788,443 and Scott Stringer received $1,176,714. These payouts and hundreds of others made to candidates running for City Council, Comptroller, Public Advocate and Borough President, broke a record for the CFB, with more than $37 million dollars going to 124 candidates so far this election cycle.
“This is probably the largest, single disclosure filing that we’ve had in the CFB’s history,” said CFB executive director Amy Loprest.
Mayoral candidates must meet a two-pronged fundraising threshold to qualify for matching funds: raise at least $250,000 from 1,000 donors in New York City. Only the first $250 of a donation to a mayoral candidate counts towards the minimum amount needed. Once a candidate meets both requirements, they are eligible for an $8-to-$1 match.
When Wiley filed her disclosure statement in January, she tweeted a thread declaring she had raised enough to unlock matching funds. Her campaign released a statement that said they had raised $700,000 from 7,000 donors, including $280,000 in matchable contributions. The filing, due January 15th, covered the fundraising period from July 12th, 2020 through January 11th, 2021.
Since Wiley only launched her campaign last October, achieving the fundraising threshold after just a little more than three months was supposed to help vault her into the top tier of candidates, demonstrating strong support among city residents in a race where more than 40 candidates have set up mayoral campaign committees.
By not receiving this funding, it deals a blow to the campaign’s perceived viability and could limit the kind of paid outreach they can do during a campaign season made more complicated by the ongoing pandemic, meaning strategies like campaign ads need to wait.
The Wiley campaign said they are waiting for the report from the CFB before issuing a comment on missing the matching funds threshold for this payment period.
On Sunday, Andrew Yang's campaign announced that Yang has also qualified for the city's matching funds, but the Campaign Finance Board has not yet confirmed his eligibility.
Loprest, the CFB’s executive director, noted during Tuesday’s meeting that all candidates’ filings are audited in order to verify contributions. If there are questions about a contributor’s address or occupation, for example, that can lead to a candidate falling below the required threshold.
She also said that candidates would have the opportunity to submit any corrected documentation and receive a payment in March. Only candidates who submitted a filing in January will be eligible for the March payment.
For candidates who did not make the fundraising threshold in January, the next opportunity to file a disclosure statement is March 15th. That will include any money raised between January 12th - March 11th, 2021. At that point, the CFB will begin its audit process of that new batch of donations. Payments of public matching funds based on the January through March fundraising period will be paid to candidates in April.
Tagged
election 2021
campaign finance board
Maya Wiley
Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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