City Candidate for Mayor to Participate in Campaign Finance System He Challenged

Today’s New York Times reports that republican New York City mayoral candidate George McDonald has decided to request matching taxpayer funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB).

McDonald had decided to challenge CFB’s rules, which limited capped contributions to him at $4,950 per person. He argued that the city’s cap was superseded by state law, which allows for far larger donations, of $19,700 for a mayoral primary and $41,000 for a general election. (Read my prior blog posts on Mr. McDonald here and here.)

According to today’s report, McDonald now hopes to raise $250,000 in donations of no more than $175 so that he can receive $1.5 million in public funds.

His case challenging the city’s cap will move forward, however, as he does not intend to returned the donations he has received that are in excess $4,950.