New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) decided on December 16 to reject providing public matching funds for Mayor Adams’ re-election campaign, citing his federal indictment and alleged violations of campaign finance regulations. The estimated amount denied to Adams exceeds $4 million, dealing a blow to his campaign.
CFB Chairman Frederick Schaffer stated that since Adams was indicted by the federal government in September, the board has been scrutinizing his campaign activities. After a thorough review of all available information and documents, including details from the federal indictment, the board had credible reasons to conclude that Adams’ campaign activities have undermined the matching funds program and violated laws, including the Campaign Finance Act and CFB regulations. Additionally, Adams’ campaign team failed to provide the requested documents to the board, making them ineligible for public matching funds.
Adams has the right to appeal the decision.
However, Schaffer mentioned that candidates denied matching funds have the right to appeal the board’s decision.
Adams was indicted by the federal government in September for alleged wrongdoing in his 2021 and 2025 campaigns, involving straw donations to defraud matching funds. Apart from the federal indictment, CFB also found various accounting errors within Adams’ campaign team, with the 2021 campaign failing to accurately record expenditures totaling $2.3 million paid to senior staff.
TheCity, a local news website, reported that CFB flagged donations Adams received between July and October as suspicious, with at least one-third of the donations violating matching funds regulations. Despite the violations in the 2021 fundraising, CFB could still cite them as reasons for denying the current round of matching funds.
Adams’ campaign consultant and lawyer Vito Pitta called CFB’s decision “disappointing,” stating that the campaign team would work closely with the board to address the issues in hopes of qualifying for matching funds in the future. Pitta added that Adams still has significantly more resources than his opponents, expressing confidence that the campaign team will receive the necessary support to allocate as much funding as possible in the upcoming primaries.
Besides denying matching funds to Adams, CFB granted $2 million in matching funds to his opponent, former City Comptroller Scott Stringer. Current Comptroller Brad Lander missed the document submission deadline and did not receive matching funds, but Lander indicated plans to submit the necessary documents before the next round of funds distribution in January next year.
Other candidates interested in participating in the mayoral primaries are yet to qualify for matching funds, as they have not secured over $25,000 in total donations from at least 1,000 individuals. CFB will distribute eight rounds of matching funds before the primaries next year, with the first round being released on December 16. The second round of matching funds will be disbursed on January 15 next year, giving Adams the chance to apply if his appeal is successful.
As per the New York City public matching funds program, candidates receive eight times the amount for each donation under $250, equating to $2,000 in matching funds. Adams initially expected to receive over $4 million in matching funds, coupled with his own $4.1 million raised, reaching the legal primary spending limit of $8 million, prompting him to halt fundraising months ago. However, Politico reported that Adams seemed to anticipate the CFB’s rejection of matching funds. Earlier this month, he resumed fundraising activities in Puerto Rico, urging guests to donate up to $3,700 each, far exceeding the small donation limit, indicating his potential withdrawal from the matching funds program.