Common Cause/NY Urges Campaign Finance Board to Reject Matching Funds for Mayor Adams

NEW YORK, NY (12/05/2024) (readMedia)-- Today, Common Cause/NY sent a letter to the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) urging the Board to reject public matching funds for Eric Adams' 2025 Mayoral Campaign. The Board is expected to decide whether or not his campaign gets taxpayer money by December 16. The U.S. Attorney indicted Mayor Adams earlier this year, alleging a series of schemes to flout the CFB rules and knowingly defraud the program of millions in taxpayer funds.

In the letter, Executive Director Susan Lerner urges the Board to consider the persistent and persuasive disregard for campaign finance law from Mayor Adams' 2021 campaign draft audit from the Board. She argues that public financing of elections is a weighty responsibility and candidates must comply with the law.

Susan Lerner writes:

"The abiding success of New York City's campaign finance system has been its predictable enforcement, as well as the Board's ability to address the evolving needs of the system. With high office comes weighty responsibilities. Participating candidates running for citywide office must be expected to set up and run campaigns that appropriately comply with the detailed requirements that the candidate has personally pledged to follow."

FULL LETTER BELOW AND ATTACHED:

December 6, 2024

Via Email

Frederick P. Schaffer, Chair

Gregory T. Camp

Richard J. Davis

Lawrence Moskowitz

Dawn Smalls

New York City Campaign Finance Board

100 Church Street, 12th Floor

New York, NY 10007

Re: Board Discretion re Matching Funds for 2025 Mayoral Campaign of Eric Adams

Dear Board Members,

Common Cause New York writes to urge the Campaign Finance Board to use its broad discretion as provided by Regulations 3-01(d) and 3-01(e) to find that the 2025 Mayoral Campaign of Eric Adamsis ineligible for matching funds. We urge the Board to consider the quantum of evidence which its staff's draft audit has revealed regarding a persistent and pervasive disregard by Mayor Adam's 2021 campaign for numerous obligations and responsibilities under the Campaign Finance Law. While anyone aspect of the questioned violative conduct and record keeping failures might be addressed by a penalty, we believe that the significant number of apparent violations of multiple obligations regarding both contributions and expenses as well as repeated failures to satisfy record-keeping and production requirements for such a long period of time by such a high-profile citywide candidate and elected official justifies the Board finding that candidate Adams is ineligible for matching funds. We urge the Board to find that the conduct identified by the draft audit report as further illuminated by the evidence cited in the federal indictment of Eric Adams, provides "reason to believe that, in the course of program participation, the candidate has engaged in conduct detrimental to the program that is in violation of ...other applicable law" as provided in regulation 3-102 (d)(ii) (I).

The abiding success of New York City's campaign finance system has been its predictable enforcement, as well as the Board's ability to address the evolving needs of the system. With high office comes weighty responsibilities. Participating candidates running for citywide office must be expected to set up and run campaigns that appropriately comply with the detailed requirements that the candidate has personally pledged to follow. The seriousness with which all candidates take their

obligations as participants is set not only by the law's terms, the Board's enforcement and the public's expectations, but also by the example set by those running for citywide office. The Regulations are properly drafted to permit the Board to take enforcement action in situations not enumerated or expressly anticipated by the Regulations, as indicated by Regulation 3-01(e ) (iii). It is incumbent on the Board to exercise its discretion to address the myriad failings of Eric Adams to comply with the law by finding that he is ineligible for matching funds, and so demonstrate to New Yorkers that no person is above the law.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Lerner, Esq.

Executive Director

cc: Paul Ryan, Esq.

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