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In GOP Mayoral Primary, Lopsided Fundraising Numbers & One Big Question


Massey city hall

Paul Massey (photo: Samar Khurshid/Gotham Gazette)


With just six months until the primaries in this year’s city elections, declared candidates for the Republican mayoral nomination have begun to step up fundraising and campaigning. Meanwhile, two potential GOP mayoral candidates are still exploring a run, and the entrance of one or both could shake up a race that is off to a seemingly lopsided start.

Midnight on Wednesday was the deadline for the latest round of campaign finance disclosures, covering a two-month period from January to March. Three candidates have officially declared their runs for the Republican nomination -- real estate executive Paul Massey; Harlem pastor Michel Faulkner; and disability rights activist Darren Aquino.

Two others have also been flirting with the idea of running -- Queens City Council Member Eric Ulrich, one of three Republicans in the legislative body; and billionaire supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, who lost in the GOP mayoral primary in 2013. While Ulrich’s fundraising picture may prevent him from launching a campaign -- plus he could run for another term in the Council; Catsimatidis would self-fund if he runs and has the resources to mount a robust campaign.

Massey is far ahead of the fundraising pack, having raised $865,000 in the last two months from 983 contributions. But, he also spent about $1.09 million in the same period. His campaign’s contributions to date total $2.48 million and his expenditure is about $3.3 million. He has also personally loaned his campaign about $1.97 million, leaving a balance of $1.16 million in his campaign account as of this week’s mid-March filing with the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

In an email blast on Wednesday, Massey touted his recent “fundraising record” which was more than double Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $394,000 raised in the last two months. “This is a significant indicator of what we have known all along – de Blasio is vulnerable and beatable,” the email read. De Blasio, however, has raised much more overall and spent far less, and has $2.32 million in his own campaign coffers. Unlike Massey, the mayor is also participating in the city’s public matching program.

At this point, fundraising comparisons between Massey and de Blasio are limited in value considering that each much emerge from their party primary before they would face off in the general as the two major party candidates. (Massey has secured the Independence Party line, so he is already assured a place in the general election.)

Massey, who officially launched his campaign in Queens on Monday, has emphasized the mayor’s vulnerability based on the two corruption investigations into the administration. He continued to harp on the controversy, even after federal and state prosecutors announced Thursday that they would not be bringing criminal charges against the mayor or his aides.

Massey is also not participating in the city’s public matching funds program -- which gives candidates 6-to-1 matching funds for every qualifying contribution up to $175 -- but boasted the strength of small dollar donors to his campaign. “[W]e almost doubled our donor base and almost half of that was from donors under $175, which proves the other thing we’ve known all along -- the more voters hear our message of integrity and leadership, the more they want to get involved,” the Wednesday campaign email read.

Faulkner’s fundraising haul pales in comparison. He has raised a total of $64,514 in contributions and has loans to his campaign worth $152,875, most of which was his own money. His campaign spending, about $268,000 outpaces his total fundraising, putting him just over $50,000 in the red. Between January and March, he raised $13,300 but spent $82,177.

Faulkner fashions himself as a candidate who will appeal broadly to Republicans and moderate Democrats, but that is at odds with his vocal support for President Donald Trump, who was soundly rejected by New York City voters in the presidential election. Faulkner has echoed some Trump policies, and opposes New York’s “sanctuary city” status. Like other Republicans, he has criticized the mayor for presiding over a decline in the quality of life in the city, citing an explosion in homelessness and the perception that the streets are unsafe, even though crime is at historic lows.

Darren Aquino’s fundraising and presence in the campaign has been almost negligible. He has raised just $1,800 total, and spent half of it. He has also made no media appearances other than participating in a March 9 mayoral candidate forum alongside Massey and Faulkner at Columbia University.

Council Member Ulrich was also on stage at that forum, organized by the Columbia University College Republicans, but not as a declared candidate. Ulrich has been hesitant to jump into the race and may be even more so now that the mayor has been cleared in the two investigations. His fundraising numbers also don’t indicate that he’s readying a run. He has raised just over $57,000 and spent about $16,000, leaving him $41,000 in his campaign account. In the last two months, he raised $5,455 and spent $791.

The second-term Council member, who recently became the subject of a reality television show pilot, said after the forum last week, “I haven’t made a decision yet. I’m very close to making a decision and I should have an announcement soon, but I’m still considering a run for mayor because I’m concerned about the future of the city and because I do believe that Bill de Blasio can be beaten.”

Appearing on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Tuesday, Ulrich criticized Mayor de Blasio while also putting on display his anti-Trump bonafides. Ulrich supported Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican presidential primary last year, and Kasich has fundraised for Ulrich’s potential mayoral candidacy. When Ulrich began exploring a mayoral campaign last year, he told Gotham Gazette in October that he would not run if he was going to be embarrassed, and that a key piece of running a viable campaign is fundraising.

Then there is Catsimatidis, who lost the 2013 Republican nomination to Joe Lhota and wants to run one more time, he has said. Catsimatidis has been noncommittal and has not even registered a committee with the campaign finance board. But, he can rely on his deep pockets to self-fund his campaign, and poses potentially the biggest threat to the fundraising frontrunner Massey. At the very least, Catsimatidis may force Massey to spend even more money during the primary.

At a St. Patrick’s Day event on March 11, the Observer reported, Catsimatidis dropped hints about a mayoral run while appealing to his own Democratic side. “Look, Bill de Blasio’s a friend of mine and it’s all about—it’s not running as a Democrat or Republican, it’s running as a New Yorker,” he said. “About running for mayor,” he said later, “we haven’t made up our mind.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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De Blasio Attempts to Clarify Latest Media Insult


de blasio media

Mayor de Blasio speaks to the media (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)


Mayor Bill de Blasio regularly expresses frustration with the ways New York media covers him and his administration. He believes that his accomplishments are not given enough ink and airtime, and that journalists focus too much on any sign of mistake or conflict, trivial matters, and the “personalities” as he feuds with Governor Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Scott Stringer.

De Blasio believes that reporters and editors do not reflect in their coverage what New Yorkers really care about and regularly challenges his “friends in the media” to report things “accurately.” While he has most famously and sharply attacked The New York Post as a “right-wing rag,” de Blasio regularly shows more mild disapproval of other publications and those who work at them.

On Friday, de Blasio issued another insult to members of the city press corps when, on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, he said New Yorkers should not trust journalists to report on the city budget.

“I would really strongly advise, Brian, anyone listening who wants to actually understand the budget to look at the budget and not go through a journalistic outlet to understand the budget,” de Blasio said. The mayor had been asked about a report by City Limits that stated the mayor had, in his preliminary budget, proposed a cut in funding for emergency food assistance. “The budget’s online. Anyone can look at it,” de Blasio added. He explained that his preliminary budget numbers are less important than his track record on an issue, citing 15 years working on food programs.

“There are times when something shows in the budget initially as a certain level of funding,” de Blasio said, “but then it’s still going to go through the executive budget process...and then a process with the City Council...It’s not a cut until the process is over and we say we want to cut something...We do have to go through a negotiation process.”

While the mayor may prefer to call it ‘a reassessment process’ or ‘an initial reduction in proposed funding to start the negotiation process,’ his preliminary budget for next fiscal year does indeed show funding for the emergency food program at about $5 million less than the adopted budget for the current fiscal year. In a follow-up article, City Limits ran through the numbers and the statements after being attacked by the mayor on WNYC.

The mayor and his aides point out that the city budget process includes hundreds of examples of reassessing funding needs, and that in many areas, the city often starts the multi-step budget process with lower funding than what is included in the adopted budget (due by July 1). In a statement to City Limits, a mayoral spokesperson said that de Blasio “suggests that everyone look at the budget over the course of the year” and that it might be better to compare one preliminary budget to the prior preliminary budget. “Ultimately,” the spokesperson said, “the point is that we are constantly assessing need.”

The budget process is, as the mayor says, about priorities and negotiation, and because a specific program has received certain funding levels in the past doesn’t mean that money will be there again -- nor does it mean that funding should remain the same or increase every year.

But, instead of simply explaining the budget process, his approach to it, and how it applies to the specific issue at hand, on WNYC de Blasio issued a broadside against the media writ large, calling into question all reporting on the city budget.

At a press conference on Monday, Gotham Gazette asked the mayor if he stood by his Friday statement that New Yorkers shouldn’t trust media outlets to report on the budget. De Blasio disputed the characterization of his comments, saying, "I was referring to a specific article that I think failed, clearly, to look at the adopted budget of the last three years, which I thought was an omission that went beyond ignorance.”

After the mayor defended his record on emergency food programs, Gotham Gazette pointed out that the mayor had not focused his comment on one media outlet. "I, no no, I don't think that's an accurate statement, I'll gladly get the transcript,” de Blasio said. “I encourage people to look at direct sources. All due respect to the media, you are the middle people. We actually put the budgets online.”

The mayor went on to say, “So, my concern was actually, with deepest respect for Brian Lehrer, that Brian Lehrer was not working from original source materials, he was working from someone else's interpretation, which I believe was an inaccurate interpretation. So I appreciate the breadth of your attempt to interpret, but I believe this was very straightforward."

Gotham Gazette then read the mayor his quote aloud: "I would really strongly advise, Brian, anyone listening who wants to actually understand the budget to look at the budget and not go through a journalistic outlet to understand the budget."

At that point, de Blasio simply replied, "I think encouraging people to look at the budget directly is really smart." He then called on a reporter from another outlet.

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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
     

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City Continues Board of Elections Budget Dance


Ben Kallos City Council

Council Member Ben Kallos (photo: William Alatriste)


Although Mayor Bill de Blasio promised after taking office that he would do away with the practice of underfunding city agencies in the preliminary budget only to later provide them with full funding, one agency that seems to suffer from this each year is the New York City Board of Elections. The budget process for fiscal year 2018 is no exception.

The mayor’s preliminary budget, which he unveiled in late January, allocates the Board of Elections $98.6 million. The figure is about $61.7 million less than the $160.3 million that BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan has projected the agency needs over the next fiscal year, which begins July 1 and includes the 2017 city election cycle.

Ryan testified Monday at a City Council budget hearing, held by the Committee on Governmental Operations, that touched on a range of topics, including challenges the BOE has faced in administering elections in the past, BOE budget savings, cybersecurity, and even President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claim of widespread voter fraud in the November 2016 presidential election.

The BOE -- which is governed by state law but funded by New York City -- was one of a number of agencies that provided testimony on the preliminary budget at Monday’s hearing, following the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Law Department.

In fiscal year 2018, the BOE anticipates overseeing four citywide election events -- a municipal primary in September, a potential run-off election day in October, a municipal general election in November, and a federal primary day in June of 2018. This doesn’t account for any special elections that may be held in the next fiscal year for vacancies that occur.

As with the last two years, the BOE’s preliminary budget is far below its needs. Last year, the city allocated $88.4 million to the BOE in the preliminary budget, before increasing that number to $123 million in the budget that was adopted in June when the mayor and City Council came to an agreement on the current spending plan. The annual November budget modification saw that number increase to $130 million.

[Related: City Criticized for Again Lowballing Elections Budget]

“Like we do with all agencies and city funded entities, we’ve funded the BOE to what we’ve determined to be their current need,” said Freddi Goldstein, a City Hall spokesperson, in an email. “We will continue conversations with them throughout the budget process and will add funding as we go along, as we deem necessary.”

Just last Friday, the mayor made a similar argument on his weekly interview on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show. “Every time I hear of someone claiming we have a budget cut in our budget, I’d like them to show us where it is because it doesn’t exist,” he said in response to a question about reduced allocations for an emergency food program. “There are times when something shows in the budget initially as a certain level of funding, but then it’s still going to go through the executive budget process, which I will propose in about six weeks and then a process with the City Council. So there are times that we know there is going to be areas that we still have to work through with the City Council. It’s not a cut until the process is over and we say we want to cut something.”

In the interview, the mayor also argued that people should personally analyze the budget and urged New Yorkers to “not go through a journalistic outlet to understand the budget.”

Council Member Ben Kallos, chair of the governmental operations committee, addressed the budget disparity, although he did not make it a focus of the hearing.

Kallos pointed out that the notoriously dysfunctional BOE has proposed its largest budget increase in years, and also has not proposed any savings, referencing the mayor’s preliminary budget promise to identify $500 million in additional agency savings in time for the executive budget. “The cost increase you’re proposing is actually more than 10 percent of the existing savings that the mayor’s asking for,” Kallos said.

Ryan pointed out that the BOE is not beholden to the city. “Unlike some other agencies, the Board is an independent board and while we are certainly sensitive to requests, wherever they may come from...we do operate a bit differently from some of the other agencies,” Ryan said.  

He later attributed the majority of the increase to a state legislative proposal, supported by the board, that would enhance the pay for poll workers from $200 to $300 per day, and for poll coordinators from $300 to $400. “If poll worker pay is off the table, then the increase is cut in half,” he said.

Some have argued that BOE operations are especially shoddy because they rely on such sporadic work to administer elections and that the pay does not attract sharp enough people. Critics point to the political nature of board commissioners, who are named through the major political party apparatuses in each borough.

Executive Director Ryan, who runs the operations of the BOE (the executive director is confirmed by a majority vote of the 10 commissioners), also noted that election budgeting isn’t always predictable either, citing the recent special election in Harlem’s City Council District 9 which then necessitated another special election for a state Senate seat since state Senator Bill Perkins was victorious.  

The Board’s independence is another reason, Ryan said, that they cannot provide performance budgeting measures for the Mayor’s Management Report, which Kallos has long advocated for.

[Related: Renewed Push for 'Performance Budgeting' Through Mayor's Management Report]

Ryan also briefed Kallos on a number of improvements the board has been implementing since last year’s April presidential primary, which saw a fair share of controversy around the purging of more than 100,000 voters from the Brooklyn voter rolls.

Ryan said the two BOE employees who were suspended for their role in the voter purge have not been terminated since BOE commissioners have not yet taken up the issue. He also said the BOE is moving ahead on instituting reforms, without accepting a $20 million offer from Mayor de Blasio that was made last year after the April primary debacle in an effort to incentivize specific reforms.

One particular point that Ryan emphasized, seeking to dispel any narrative that may suggest otherwise, was that New York’s election system is not prone to cyber threats and that election results were never at risk during the presidential election last year.

What was at risk, he admitted, was other systems that the BOE uses -- including its website, Facebook and Twitter -- that could be hijacked to disseminate misinformation. “When we’re looking at beefing up our cybersecurity,” Ryan said, “those are the kinds of areas that we’re looking to make sure that we do what we need to do, and that requires money.”

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.



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