The city Campaign Finance Board (CFB) on Monday voted to grant former Gov. Andrew Cuomo a portion of the $1.3 million in matching funds it withheld from his leading mayoral bid over preliminary findings of illegal coordination between the campaign and a super PAC supporting it.
CFB member Richard Davis, in a Monday statement, said the board’s decision to award Cuomo over $540,000 that it had previously withheld came after the super PAC backing his candidacy — “Fix the City” — updated documentation with the board. The PAC, Davis said, showed it had actually spent close to $757,000 on a May 4 TV ad, over which the board suspects it illegally coordinated with Cuomo’s campaign, instead of the nearly $1.3 million it had previously reported.
Davis said that led the Cuomo team to petition the CFB to limit how much it is holding back to the amount that was actually spent on the ad, which the board then approved.
“With the authority delegated to me by the Board, I grant the petition and authorize a payment to the Cuomo campaign of $540,482, which reflects a withholding of $756,994 in matching funds,” Davis said.
The board first declined to give Cuomo just over $622,000 in public funds during its May 12 meeting. The board cited it having “reason to believe” Cuomo’s campaign was illegally providing Fix the City with information and video clips to make its TV ads by publicly posting the elements on its website — a practice known as “redboxing.”
During the board’s May 30 meeting, it docked the former governor an additional $675,000 for continuing to air the commercial — totaling $1.3 million.
The board determined that the sum counted towards Cuomo’s fundraising cap, which significantly damaged his campaign coffers. Its investigation into whether Cuomo’s campaign and Fix the City broke the law is still ongoing.
In response to the board’s Monday decision, Cuomo’s campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said, “We always said we were in full compliance with the law and look forward to receiving the full amount once the CFB finishes their preliminary investigation.”
Even though the CFB is still refusing to give Cuomo $757,000 in matching funds, his campaign is hardly in dire financial trouble. It has raised $7.2 million in private contributions and public funds combined and still has $5.2 million in its campaign account.
Furthermore, Fix the City has raised an astounding sum of approximately $12.6 million, according to state CFB records. That is the most of any outside expenditure of its kind in city history, published reports indicate.
Cuomo has been knocked by his rivals for his hiccups with unlocking matching funds, which also includes his campaign being denied the public dollars due to widespread paperwork issues. They contend the issues demonstrate that Cuomo is both corrupt and not the competent manager he has portrayed himself to be.
Early voting in the June 24 Democratic primary begins this Saturday, June 14.
