Taxpayer dollars continued to rain down on those seeking office in this year’s citywide primary as the City’s Campaign Finance Board (CFB) today approved another $23,365,739 in public matching funds to candidates running in the 2021 election season.
With dozens of open seats due to term limits and a generous $8-to-$1 public financing match, CFB has now issued over $72 million – a record for the agency – and with plenty more to come.
“Overall, more candidates are now registered to run in the 2021 elections than ever before, the vast majority of whom have agreed to participate in the matching funds program, which incentivizes candidates to focus on raising small donations from New Yorkers,” tweeted the CFB.
In all, six candidates for Mayor qualified this time around for public matching funds, more than any previous mayoral field in CFB history.
The highest earner this round was candidate Andrew Yang, who received $3,724,112 in public payments – the first time receiving CFB money. Other mayoral candidates who received money for the first time included Kathryn Garcia, who received $2,265,561 and Dianne Morales, who received $2,247,681.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams received an additional $317,295 in his run for mayor and now has received a total of $5,518,350 in matching funds, Comptroller Scott Stringer received and $589,230 bringing his total in matching funds to $5,245,258 and Maya Wiley received another $906,437 bringing her total to $2,818,118 in matching funds.
There were also payouts for five City Comptroller candidates. City Council Speaker Corey Johnson slid home with his first public payout of $3,846,444, Senator Brian Benjamin received $274,506, Zachary Iscol received $525,019, Councilmember Brad Lander received $465,204, and Assemblymember David Weprin received $140,115.
In other races, there were public fund payments for 20 candidates running for borough presidents citywide and 127 City Council candidates.
The candidates’ most recent disclosure reports are based on their filings from March 15. The next disclosure reports are due by midnight on May 21. There will then be a public funds payment on May 27 based on those disclosures.
CFB confirmed that these were up-to-date figures, but that the website summaries wouldn’t be updated until later on today.
