Today the New York City Campaign Finance Board voted to deny Mayor Eric Adams’s 2025 reelection campaign public matching funds. The board’s chair stated that there was “reason to believe the Adams campaign has engaged in conduct detrimental to the matching funds program, in violation of law.” This decision follows a federal indictment accusing Adams’s 2021 campaign of obtaining public matching funds through illegal straw contributions and falsified documentation, and reports of the campaign’s persistent failure to respond to inquiries from the board.
Joanna Zdanys, deputy director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, had the following comment:
“Today the Campaign Finance Board sent a clear message to candidates and donors alike: access to public dollars is not an automatic privilege. It must be earned through compliance with strict standards of accountability and transparency. That’s what New Yorkers expect – and what they deserve.
“For more than three decades, New York City’s public financing program has served as a cornerstone of our democracy. It has amplified the voices of everyday New Yorkers and countered the influence of big-money donors, boosted the diversity of donors and candidates, and fostered fairer, more transparent elections. Protecting the integrity of this program is essential to maintaining trust in the electoral process.”
