NYC CFB Won’t Count Non-Profit Spending Against Mayor in 2017 Election
The New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYC CFB) announced yesterday that Mayor Bill de Blasio did not violate the city’s campaign finance laws when he solicited large donations through a nonprofit organization that he controlled. However, the Board criticized such fundraising and urges the City Council to prohibit it.
Common Cause filed a complaint with CFB in February, urging the CFB to consider whether the Campaign for One New York violated the city’s campaign finance laws by soliciting and accepting contributions far in excess of what is permitted under those laws.
The CFB concluded that the nonprofit’s spending was not campaign-related, primarily because it occurred in 2014, well before the Mayor’s re-election race in 2017.
The CFB issued Advisory Opinion 2016-1 to provide guidance in this area of the law, including “a set of factors the Board will consider to determine whether coordinated expenditures were made in connection with a covered election.” Among those factors, the timing of the expenditure will be key. Any coordinated expenditures in the same year as the election will be presumed to have been made in connection with a covered election, while expenditures made prior to the year of the election will not be considered not connected with a covered election, unless other factors exist.
Finally, the CFB sharply rebuked Mayor de Blasio in a statement from its Chair, Rose Gill Hearn:
“The fundraising by the Campaign for One New York plainly raises serious policy and perception issues an illuminates the ways in which the jurisdiction of the Campaign Finance Act is limited. New York City’s campaign finance law allows candidates to run for office without relying on big contributions from special interests. The system depends on reasonable contribution limits that reduce the appearance that influence can be bought or sold through campaign contributions.”
Read news coverage from Crain’s, Gotham Gazette, the New York Times and Politico NY.