NYC Mayoral Candidate Loses Lawsuit Challenging City’s Contribution Limits

On Friday, a State Supreme Court Justice ruled against Republican mayoral candidate George McDonald in his challenge to New York City’s contribution limits. (Read my earlier posts on his challenge here and here.)

McDonald sought to collect individual contributions up to the $41,000 state law permits, rather than the $4,950 that city law permits.

Read the decision, in which State Supreme Court Justice Kathryn Freed concludes that the state Election Law does not pre-empt the city’s contribution limits.

City lawmakers put in place campaign contribution limits that are lower than lower than those set forth in state law as part of campaign finance reforms that first went into effect in 1988. The main feature of those reforms is a matching funds system, but it also lowered contribution limits to reduce the influence of big donors.

The New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) applauded the decision, saying that it “guarantees that the City’s public matching funds program will continue to apply those limits equally to all candidates.”

Read news coverage of the decision in Crain’s, the NY Post, the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Daily Politics blog.