City & State NY Provides A Close Look at the NYC Campaign Finance Board

City & State NY takes a critical look at the New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYC CFB), which it calls “the judge, jury and executioner of New York City’s campaign finance laws.”

The article is framed by the recent experience of former New York City Comptroller John Liu.  Liu, who was denied public funds by CFB in his race for Mayor last year, recently filed a lawsuit against the agency (read my earlier post about his lawsuit here).

It also provides an interesting history and context of New York City’s public funding program, and how it has been altered since it was enacted in 1988.

Specific criticisms of CFB include:

• not providing enough guidance about penalties and how they are assessed;
• “bogging down candidates” with a burdensome and lengthy auditing process;
• meting out punishments inconsistently; and
• the lack of due process in denying public funds to candidates.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of publicly-funded political campaigns, the article shows some of the challenges that CFB faces, and that will have to be addressed at the state level if such a system is enacted in Albany.