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The Money Race in the Republican Mayoral Primary: March Filing Shows First Fundraising


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(l-r) GOP mayoral candidates Fernando Mateo, Curtis Sliwa, Sara Tirschwell, Bill Pepitone


With just three months to go till the June 22 primary, a small field of Republicans have declared their campaigns for mayor. They are trying to succeed outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, a two-term Democrat, and return the city to the type of Republican leadership it had for 20 years before de Blasio took office in 2014. While it’s a steep climb given the city’s overwhelming Democratic voter enrollment advantage, several Republicans are eager to become the party’s general election nominee against whichever of many Democrats comes out of that side of the primary field.

Last week, candidates of both parties filed their campaign fundraising and expenditures reports with the Campaign Finance Board. There are roughly eight Democrats considered to be in the ‘top tier’ based on their fundraising, as well as other metrics. The Republican field is much small er and the candidates are just starting to show their fundraising.

The city offers a voluntary program that allows campaigns to receive matching public funds for small dollar contributions from city residents. This year, as new rules are being phased in, mayoral campaigns can choose two options: the old system, which matches the first $175 of every qualifying contribution from a city resident at a 6-to-1 ratio and comes with a $5,100 maximum individual contribution limit; and the new system, which matches the first $250 of every qualifying contribution at an 8-to-1 ratio, with an individual contribution limit of $2,000. Under both systems, candidates have to meet a dual threshold of raising and spending at least $250,000 from a minimum of 1,000 city residents in order to receive well over $1 million in public funds.

None of the Republican candidates have come close.

There are four main Republican candidates running for mayor including former Wall Street executive Sara Tirschwell; Fernando Mateo, a businessperson and head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers and the United Bodegas of America; Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, and former NYPD officer Bill Pepitone.

All the candidates are participating in the public funds program but Tirschwell is the only one who opted in to the old rules. She has a strong fundraising lead as of this filing, having raised nearly $320,000. A large part of that, nearly $204,000, came from donors outside the city. She also loaned her campaign another $300,000 in personal funds. She has already spent $187,000 and has about $432,000 in cash on hand as of the mid-March filing. She has 237 contributors, with an average donation size of $1,347.

Mateo, who has the backing of the Republican Party county organizations in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx, has raised just over $200,000 for his campaign and spent nearly $20,000, leaving him with about $180,000 in cash on hand as of the filing. He had 866 donors who gave an average of $231. About $140,000 of his funds came from city residents.

Though Sliwa has spent months talking up his mayoral campaign, has the support of the Staten Island and Brooklyn Republican Party organizations, and just held an official kick-off event, he has raised only $10,244 in total and has spent none of it, per the filing. He has 64 donors who made an average contribution of $160. His fundraising was split almost 50-50 between city residents and nonresidents.

Pepitone, who has received the backing of the Conservative Party, has similarly made little progress at fundraising. He has raised $14,498, spent $3,054, and has $11,444 in cash on hand as of the filing. He has 207 contributors for an average contribution size of $70. Of his total funds, $10,675 came from within the city.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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The Money Race in the Democratic Comptroller Primary: March Filing Sets Stage for Final Months


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top l-r: Brian Benjamin, Brad Lander, Kevin Parker David Weprin; bottom: Reshma Patel, Zach Iscol, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Terri Liftin


With just three months until the June primary, Democratic candidates running for New York City Comptroller filed their latest campaign finance disclosures with the Campaign Finance Board. The filings covered the last two months of fundraising and spending activity, and provide keen insight into which candidates have broad support and significant resources for the closing stretch of the race.

Nearly all the major Democratic candidates are participating in the city’s public matching funds program, under new rules that match up to the first $250 of every qualifying contribution from city residents at an 8-to-1. None of the top candidates have opted into the old system, which provides a lower match but has higher contribution limits. To qualify for public funds, candidates had to meet a dual threshold of raising and spending at least $125,000 from a minimum of 500 donors that are New York City residents. Participants must also abide by a $4.55 million spending limit for the primary.

The main candidates include several sitting elected officials: Manhattan State Senator Brian Benjamin, Brooklyn City Council Member Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson of Manhattan, Queens State Assemblymember David Weprin, and Brooklyn State Senator Kevin Parker. They are joined by several first-time candidates that include compliance and investment expert Terri Liftin, finance executive Reshma Patel, and military veteran and entrepreneur Zach Iscol, who in January shifted from the mayor’s race to run to be the city’s next chief fiscal officer, as well as finance journalist Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, who challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in last year’s congressional primary.

Johnson also shifted his intentions from mayor to comptroller, with months of pause in between before making this run official earlier this month. Given his citywide perch, name recognition among the political class, ability to bring in endorsements, and prior fundraising, he was immediately seen as among the frontrunners.

Lander continues to lead the race in fundraising. He has raised more than $4 million in sum, including $3.1 million public matching funds. He raised $824,000 from New York City residents and about $45,000 from outside the city. He has about $3.4 million in cash on hand as of the new filing. He has a total of 5,123 donors with an average contribution of $170. He also has about $70,000 in matching claims from the latest filing period, which could bring in another $560,000 in public funds next month.

Iscol has raised about $2.3 million, including $1.4 million in public funds. About $515,000 of his fundraising came from within the city and $374,000 from outside. He has nearly $1.7 million in cash on hand as of the filing. He had a total of 2,348 donors and received an average contribution of $379. In his latest filing, he has nearly $52,000 in matching claims that would equal $416,000 in additional matching funds if approved by the Campaign Finance Board.

Benjamin has raised nearly $2.1 million, which includes $1.3 million in public funds. He raised $561,000 from within the city and $226,000 from outside donors. He has a total of 2,503 donors for an average contribution of $315. He has about $1.7 million in cash on hand as of the filing. His latest matching claims of about $46,000 would bring in another $368,000 in public funds next month.

Weprin, who ran for comptroller back in 2009 as well after a stint in the City Council, has raised about $1.86 million, of which $1.3 million came in the form of public funds. He has 1,642 donors and an average contribution size of $321. He raised about $430,000 from city residents and about $97,000 from outside donors. He has $1.5 million in cash on hand as of the filing. He could receive roughly $224,000 in additional public funds next month against his $28,000 in matching claims from the latest disclosure period, pending Board vetting.

Corey JohnsonJohnson has not raised any funds in recent months leading up to the filing, but still has a healthy campaign cash balance. He had raised nearly $860,000 for his aborted mayoral campaign and has nearly $575,000 in cash on hand as of this filing. He has a total of 4,850 donors who gave an aver age of $159 -- when he was fundraising for a mayoral run, Johnson had capped all donations at $250. About $657,000 of his funds came from city residents and $112,000 from nonresidents. His late entry into the race means he has not yet received any public funds but he seems to have crossed the necessary thresholds to receive a payment next month. His campaign claims more than $600,000 in matchable contributions, which would net him $4.8 million in public funds, surpassing the spending limit for the primary and giving him a major windfall for the final two months of the Democratic campaign.

Caruso-Cabrera, has raised just over $515,000 for her comptroller campaign from 369 donors that contributed an average of $1,396. She raised $245,000 from within the city and about $270,000 from outside of it. She has about $387,000 in cash on hand as of the filing. Caruso-Cabrera has not yet qualified for public matching funds. Her campaign declared about $21,600 in matchable contributions, falling well below the threshold.

State Senator Parker is far behind aforementioned candidates. He has raised $214,000 from 1,066 contributors who gave an average of $201. He raised $165,000 from city residents and just under $49,000 from nonresidents. He has about $107,000 in cash on hand as of the filing. With only about $90,000 in matchable contributions, he too failed to qualify for public funds.

Liftin has raised $102,000 from 191 contributors that donated an average of $535. She raised about $45,000 from within the city and about $57,000 from outside donors. She has less than $14,000 in cash on hand as of the filing.

Patel has raised just over $90,000, of which about $54,000 came from city residents and $36,000 from outside the city. She had 421 donors for an average contribution of $214. She has just under $57,000 in cash on hand as of the filing.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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Johnson photo inset: John McCarten/City Council

Legislation Aims to Improve Efficiency and Access at Election Poll Sites


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Voting (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The 2020 general election saw an unprecedented number of New Yorkers cast their ballots, including through early voting, which was in place for the first time for a presidential election, and expanded absentee voting. As turnout jumped despite the coronavirus pandemic, there were again numerous instances of long lines at the polls, especially during the first several days of early voting when demand appeared to significantly outrun the number of available poll sites. Election administration in the city, run by the New York City Board of Elections, which is essentially a creature of the state, has been notoriously shoddy in recent election cycles and voters often wait hours to cast a vote and experience other snafus at poll sites.

A bill set to be introduced before the City Council on Thursday aims to solve these problems.

City Council Member Ben Kallos, a Manhattan Democrat, is introducing legislation to create a temporary poll-site task force that would examine measures to improve access to poll sites and to make them more efficient. The task force would be charged with studying the functioning of poll sites in the 2020 elections, the cost of running them, and the possible effects on the health of voters, and would recommend locations and the number of sites for future elections. 

“I hate task force bills and I think that they're mostly useless, but this is the one time I think it's the only path forward,” Kallos said in a phone interview, reluctantly acknowledging that the Board of Elections is not really under the jurisdiction of city law despite the fact that it is funded in large part through the city budget.

Kallos recounted the experience of voters in the last election in his district on the Upper East Side, where the early voting site at Robert F. Wagner Middle School was assigned more than 118,000 voters, the most out of 88 early voting sites across the city, according to an analysis by the New York City Campaign Finance Board. More than 118,000 voters were assigned to that site, with many waiting for nearly six hours to cast their ball ots. That prompted Kallos to work with Borough President Gale Brewer to launch their own Manhattan-focused task force. 

The citywide task force proposed in Kallos’ bill would be required to meet at least once a month and solicit testimony from experts and community members about future poll sites. It would have to submit a report to the mayor and City Council within nine months of the bill being passed into law. The report would be made public on the Board of Elections website ten days after submission.

Among the requirements for the report would be a list of poll sites from the 2020 general election where voters waited more than 30 minutes to cast their ballots, the reasons for waiting, and the cost of making sites temporarily or permanently compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

It would also be required to include a list of poll sites that were considered for use in 2020 and which ones were accepted or rejected by the Board of Elections. The list would determine which buildings made their facilities available for use by the Board and which did not, and whether the city took any steps to revoke tax benefits awarded to those buildings, which Kallos noted is allowed by state election law.

That last measure is Kallos’ effort to pressure major cultural institutions to offer up their space to facilitate voting. “Every community board has nonprofit institutions, whether they're colleges, private schools, cultural institutions, or community centers that don't pay taxes to have their space, that may have million-dollar endowments, that aren't doing their fair share to facilitate democracy,” Kallos said. “We may be able to convince them to make their spaces available for 20 days a year for the sake of democracy.”

The task force would be comprised of roughly 12 members: the president of the city Board of Elections or a designated representative, who would serve as chair; a Board of Elections commissioner from each borough or their representative, appointed by the mayor; the city schools chancellor or their representative; the commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction or their representative; two other members appointed by the mayor; and two members appointed by the City Council speaker. The mayor would also have to invite the president of the School Construction Authority to participate in the task force and would be allowed to invite other representatives from local, state, and federal agencies as well. The task force members would not be paid for their work.

Under the bill, the task force would be dissolved six months after it submits its report. 

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

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