Mayor Adams again denied matching funds as Campaign Finance Board shifts tactics
On Tuesday, the New York campaign funding board again refused the mayor Adams on Tuesday, public funds for his re -election effort – but the panel changed the reason to deprive him of critical money after a key judicial decision.
Since December 2024, the Board of Directors has retained more than $ 3 million in counterpart funds for the Adams campaign, largely because of its federal accusation act, which accused him of taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish government agents in exchange for political favors.
The indictment was rejected in April at the request of the Ministry of Justice of President Trump in a very controversial agreement which, according to many, left Adams Compromise. Despite the dismissal, the CFB has been since April during several meetings of the Board of Directors since April to cite the Corruption case as reasons for refusing Adams financing, arguing that it provides a “reason to believe” that it has violated the laws on the financing of the city campaigns.
However, last week, a judge of the Federal Court of Brooklyn ruled in response to a trial of the Adams campaign that the board of directors could not retain the counterpart funds from Adams due to the indictment, since it was abandoned.
The judge, however, judged that the board of directors could refuse Adams to match the funds due to the failure of his campaign to respond to his requests for documentation, including files related to the donors mentioned in his accusation.
During a meeting on Tuesday morning, Frederick Schaffer, president of the CFB, acknowledged the judge “questioned” his reasoning on the corruption case. However, he said that the Board of Directors continued to refuse Adams to match the funds due to the requests for exceptional documents, passing the mayor when he faces a difficult path to re -election, presenting himself as independent in the general elections of November.
“Because the documents and information requested from the Adams campaign are still underway and have been underway since last November, the board of directors today determines that the mayor Adams campaign has not demonstrated the eligibility for the payments of public funds at present,” said Schaffer.
Schaffer also said that the independent investigation of the board of directors on Adams and that his campaign remained “in progress”. As part of this survey, the board of directors recently requested a multitude of files related to individuals and fundraising events referenced in its indictment.
Frank Carone, president of the Adams re -election campaign, said that he hoped that the mayor would obtain counterpart funds at the next meeting of the board of directors. He also thanked the judge of the Federal Court of Brooklyn for having ruled that the “reason for believing” CFB standard had previously cited in the refusal of the funds of Adams was “arbitrary and unconstitutional”.
“Without this arbitrary standard, all that we must do is respect what remains of the CFB document request … Consequently, we are now convinced that the mayor Adams will receive corresponding funds,” Carone said in a press release.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the board of directors approved about $ 1 million in new counterpart funds for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for the mayor who heads the ballot box. He also granted around $ 135,000 to new counterpart funds for Jim Walden, a lawyer who sets up an independent longshot offer for the mayor.
The ex-gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also presents himself as independent in the Town Hall race in November, did not ask for the payment of the counterpart funds on Tuesday, according to his spokesperson Rich Azzopardi. In the light of his announcement on Monday that he will remain in the November race, the former Governor plans to request funds at the meeting of the council next month, added Azzopardi.
The Republican candidate for the town hall, Curtis Sliwa, also did not ask for the payment of Tuesday, but his spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna said he was planning to do so at the August meeting.
The meetings of the CFB board of directors are generally dry and pro formal affairs. But before Schaffer began reading his declaration on the refusal of Adams funds, the meeting was disrupted by a small group of angry demonstrators against the deployment of the CFB to the CFB of its electoral guide to the primary elections in 2025, which included a certain number of errors, which allowed the board of directors to spend millions of dollars to correct the brochure and send new ones to the city residents.
“$ 7 million in the sewers,” said one of the demonstrations before being escorted out of the room.
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