The Campaign Finance Board’s (CFB) released the latest campaign finance filings for the upcoming 2021 election races Wednesday.
Candidates opting into the city’s public financing for elections, a program through which they receive $8-to-$1 taxpayer match on certain campaign contributions, are required to file CFB disclosure reports.
The filings reveal who might take the lead, at least in fundraising, in the city’s upcoming mayoral and comptroller races, as well as in the 13 out of 15 city council seats in Queens up for grabs.
In the mayoral race, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and City Comptroller Scott are raking in the dough. Adams reported raising $2,593,345 in private funds, while Stringer reported $2,788,831.
Two other mayoral hopefuls filed. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson reported $859,394 and Shaun Donovan, a former housing secretary and budget director under former President Barack Obama, and housing director under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, reported $662,003.
In what is so far looking like a two-person race for City Comptroller, Park Slope City Councilmember Brad Lander has hauled in $650,142 while Harlem State Sen. Brian Benjamin’s has raised $462,327.
In Queens, the 13 of the 15 city council seats are up for grabs. Of the incumbents eligible to run again, only City Councilmember Adrienne Adams filed with the CFB. She reported that she’s raised $14,950 so far in her bid to protect her seat in District 28.
The other incumbent, City Councilmember Robert Holden, did not do a filing as of post time.
Lynn Schulman, a candidate for District 29, has raised the most money by far out of all of the candidates for council seats in Queens. Schulman, who if elected would be the first openly-lesbian city councilmember, has $71,067 in her war chest as of the most recent filing. Her private funds dwarf those of her opponents by multitudes –– Eliseo D. Labayan ($3,400), Evan F Boccardi ($1,100), Edwin K. Wong ($470) and Sharon Levy ($40) –– combined.
Districts 22 and 26 with seven candidates each take the lead for the most candidates vying for office.
Leonardo Bullaro is leading the way in District 22 with $31,204 in private funds followed by Evie Hantzopoulos ($20,581) and Nicholas Roloson ($10,829) who was endorsed by current District 22 City Councilmember Costa Constantinides. The other four candidates Jaime-Faye Bean ($4,095), Jesse A Cerrotti ($4,108), Felicia Calan ($4,280) and Rod Townsend ($4,472) have all raised less than $5,000.
In District 26, Brent M. O’Leary ($25,480) is a clear leader followed by Lorenzo Brea ($10,316) and Julia L. Forman ($9,359) with the other four candidates –– Tavo T Bortoli ($175), Heajin Kim ($4,802), Sultan A Maruf ($355) and Bianca Ozeri ($1,810) –– trailing far behind.
A few districts have only one candidate who’s filed with the campaign finance board so far Juan D. Ardila ($20,582) filed for District 30 and Jennifer Gutierrez ($15,436) for District 24.
In District 25, Shekar Krishnan and Alfonso Quiroz are neck and neck with $41,249 and $41,572 respectively. Suraj Jaswal takes last with a paltry $1,820.
It’s also a close fundraising race in District 32 between Kalad Alamarie ($18,782) and Felicia Singh ($19,633) with Michael G. Scala ($5,530) bringing up the rear.
Candidates Richard Lee ($32,450) for District 19 and Sandra Ung ($40,537) for District 20 have both raised more than double their opponents, Tony Avella ($14,996) and Hailing Chen ($16,004).
And finally, in the races that have raised the least private funds so far, Manuel Silva has the lead in District 31 with $7,425 followed by Latoya Benjamin ($3,421) and Franck Joseph ($3,944) while Timothy E. Turane ($5,054) has raised more than his opponent Nantasha M. Williams ($2,585) for District 27.
The first matching funds payment from the CFB is set to go out in December.
