Mayor Eric Adams was denied public matching funds for his re-election campaign on Monday as he faces federal corruption charges focused on his fund-raising practices, dealing a major setback to his bid for a second term.
The New York City Campaign Finance Board ruled that Mr. Adams was not eligible to participate in a program that awards an eight-for-one match of small-dollar donations, withholding as much as $4.3 million.
Mr. Adams was indicted in September and is expected to go on trial in April; his top adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, resigned on Sunday amid a grand jury investigation by prosecutors in Manhattan.
The board’s chair, Frederick P. Schaffer, said that the board had reviewed the indictment and other records and concluded that “there is reason to believe the Adams campaign has engaged in conduct detrimental to the matching-funds program in violation of law.”
“Our priority remains achieving an equitable and transparent democracy that is accountable to all New Yorkers,” he said.
The mayor, whose approval rating has fallen to a record low, is facing a difficult path to re-election next year, and the denial of matching funds places him at a significant disadvantage. He will have less money to spend on television advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts in a competitive race, and will be forced to devote more of his time to fund-raising.
Mr. Schaffer said the board had determined that Mr. Adams was ineligible for matching funds “at this time,” leaving open the possibility that he could qualify in the future. He said that the Adams campaign had failed to provide documents and information that the board requested.
Vito R. Pitta, a lawyer for the mayor’s re-election campaign, said in a statement that the campaign was disappointed with the ruling but added that it would work with the board to address issues in hopes of qualifying in the future.
“The mayor’s campaign continues to have far more resources than his opponents, and we are very confident we will have the support we need to spend the maximum amount allowable in the upcoming primary,” Mr. Pitta said.
The mayor’s 2025 campaign has already raised more than $4 million and had hoped to claim another $4.3 million in taxpayer money.
Only one Democrat running in the June primary has so far qualified for matching funds under the city’s generous campaign finance program, which awards $8 for every dollar donated by a city resident, up to $250. A mayoral candidate must raise at least $250,000 and must receive contributions from at least 1,000 donors who live in the city to qualify.
The candidate, Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller, has received more than $2 million in matching funds.
“New York City needs a proven reformer to clean up City Hall and get the government back to delivering for people in this city,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “Our campaign qualifying for matching funds shows that New Yorkers trust that I am the best candidate to do so.”
Candidates will have a series of opportunities to qualify for matching funds in the coming months.
Two other candidates, Brad Lander, the current city comptroller, and Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn, said they expected to qualify for public matching funds next month. Mr. Lander has raised the most money after Mr. Adams, but he did not submit the paperwork needed to qualify this time around.
The board’s denial of matching funds is not unprecedented. John Liu, a top mayoral candidate in 2013, was denied $3.5 million in public matching funds after two campaign workers were convicted in a straw-donor scandal. The decision exacerbated his political problems, and he finished the Democratic primary race in fourth place.
The federal indictment against Mr. Adams accused him of soliciting and accepting straw donations for both his 2021 campaign and his 2025 re-election campaign. Prosecutors said that he conspired with foreign nationals to illegally funnel money into his campaign coffers and his team encouraged businessmen to have employees make donations and reimburse them.
Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a good government group, praised the Campaign Finance Board’s decision and urged it to refuse any future requests by Mr. Adams “until he is cleared of wrongdoing.”
“While Adams is entitled to the presumption of innocence in a criminal court of law, his continued delays in cooperating with C.F.B. auditors about how he spends taxpayer money and the conduct identified in his indictment demonstrates a failure to meet the necessarily high standard for public funding at this time,” she said.
The indictment outlined several instances in which Mr. Adams’s campaign sought to exploit the city’s matching funds program.
In April 2021, Mr. Adams met with a Brooklyn businessman to explain the matching funds program and solicit contributions, according to the indictment. A month later, the businessman held a fund-raiser for Mr. Adams and gave 10 of his employees $1,250 apiece to donate.
The campaign requested matching funds for eight of those “straw donations,” generating an extra $16,000. In total, the event raised more than $69,000 from 84 donors and unlocked an additional $63,760 in matching funds, according to campaign records.
The full scope of potential illegal donations remains unknown. The Adams campaign managed to raise over $8.9 million for his 2021 mayoral election and generate more than $10 million in public funds, surpassing any other citywide candidate that year.
Last month, as part of the Campaign Finance Board’s 2025 pre-election audit process, regulators ruled that 592 contributions that Mr. Adams’s campaign claimed for public matching funds had failed to meet the eligibility requirements and were invalid. These contributions were worth $139,484 and would have unlocked $1,115,872 in public funds.
Earlier this year, auditors from the board also flagged irregularities in Mr. Adams’s 2021 fund-raising practices. A 900-page draft audit found numerous missing payments, questionable donations from people who either never gave any money or were illegally reimbursed by others for their contributions, and the potential misallocation of as much as $2.3 million in taxpayer money.
The board granted the mayor four extensions to give him more time to respond to the draft audit. The last deadline passed on Nov. 29; the mayor’s response has not been released publicly.
The post Mayor Adams Is Denied Public Money for His Re-election Campaign appeared first on New York Times.
