Governor Kathy Hochul (photo: governor's office)

Governor Kathy Hochul has raised more than $38.8 million for her campaign -- the vast majority of it in the 11 months since she became governor -- and spent a whopping $26 million to win the June 28 Democratic primary, according to the latest campaign finance filings with the State Board of Elections.

Hochul, New York’s first female governor, handily won the primary with 66.5% of the vote against her opponents, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who received 19% of the vote, and Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island, who got 12.8%. Hochul

(photo: Mayor's Office)

Candidates running for local office filed their latest campaign finance disclosures with the New York City Campaign Finance Board this week, showing their fundraising and expenditures from the last six months, and cumulative numbers for the 2021 election cycle.

Next year’s election is shaping up to be highly competitive and consequential, with two of three citywide elected officials, four of five borough presidents, and 35 of 51 City Council members facing term limits. The city will elect a new mayor and comptroller for the first

(Photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of the Governor)

The State Board of Elections voted on Wednesday to hobble the subpoena powers of Chief Enforcement Counsel Risa Sugarman, dealing a significant blow to one of the state’s only election law watchdogs.

The new rules, which were voted on by the board at a commissioners’ meeting in Albany, would require Sugarman to obtain permission from the board members (two Democrats, two Republicans) for each subpoena she plans to issue in a probe, and for the “circumstances of the investigation”

Mayor de Blasio at inauguration (photo: NYC Mayor's Office)

The recent citywide municipal election saw more than $53 million in spending, with nearly $42 million in private funds raised by candidates and more than $17 million in public matching funds disbursed by the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Candidates just filed their final campaign disclosures with the Board, which were due Tuesday, showing the last weeks of activity as the

Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (@NYSComptroller)

As the office and campaign of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance reexamine internal policies regarding the acceptance of campaign contributions, they may want to reference the guidebook of the office of the State Comptroller or Attorney General, both of which have implemented their own donor-vetting systems and guidelines in the wake of controversies involving fundraising practices. These checks far exceed what is required by ...

Manhattan DA Cy Vance (photo: @ManhattanDA)

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., was recently dragged into an unflattering spotlight over his decision not to prosecute disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein for a forcible touching incident in 2015 and for dropping a fraud investigation into members of the Trump family in a 2012, while apparently receiving campaign contributions from lawyers associated with both parties.

While it is not illegal - or uncommon - for district attorneys to accept contributions from

(IE mailer on behalf of Francisco Moya by the hotel workers union)

In 2013, independent expenditures by shadowy groups became a dominant talking point around the city’s elections that year. Large spending in races up and down the ballot led to legal changes post-election, but candidates that year benefitted from -- and were hurt by -- large sums of campaign money from groups forbidden from coordinating with their campaigns, but with clear stakes in the outcomes of the elections.

In 2013, independent groups tied to big real

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren (via Facebook)

Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren is drawing scrutiny for apparently using a political action committee she founded in 2015 help finance her 2017 re-election campaign and for repeatedly accepting over-the-limit contributions from business interests, as shown by her campaign finance records.

The Warren for a Strong Rochester PAC can accept virtually unlimited donations, but like other donors, the PAC is prohibited from