City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams has seen some momentum behind her mayoral bid lately, with a new poll showing her support rising in the wake of a string of high-profile endorsements.
But even amid those positive signs, the speaker hasn’t unlocked any public matching funds — in part due to persistent paperwork issues — which could hamper her ability to get her message out as the Democratic mayoral primary looms just weeks away.
Records obtained by the Daily News show 619 of the 889 claims the speaker submitted for public matching in the last reporting period were rejected as “invalid” due to various paperwork errors, like missing backup documentation and employment information for some donors. That amounts to a 69.6% rejection rate, the highest for any candidate in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary to date, according to a review of campaign finance records.
As of the March 13 end of the last reporting period, the speaker’s campaign had raised just $337,437, far less than most of her opponents, and she also hadn’t received enough individual donations to meet the threshold to qualify for public matching funds in the first place.
The last reporting period ended eight days after the speaker launched her mayoral run. That gave her team a tight window to get matching funds paperwork together, potentially offering an explanation for the high error rate on the March filing.
But this Monday, the Campaign Finance Board again withheld matching funds from the speaker because at least 20% of the claims her team had re-submitted included “documentation errors” and at least 25% of donations exceeding $99 were missing employment information for the contributors, according to a release from the board.
Monday’s filing was meant for candidates to correct any errors on previously invalid claims. That release confirms the speaker’s campaign still hasn’t corrected a significant chunk of the errors that first emerged in her March filing.
Lupe Todd-Medina, a representative for the speaker, said Wednesday the “bulk” of the errors happened because her team used donation software that wasn’t registered with the CFB. “That has since been rectified,” she said.
Many of the speaker’s opponents are already sitting on millions of dollars in public matching funds and have started to spend them on ads as the final sprint in the mayoral race gets underway.
Despite her campaign’s compliance troubles, Adams got some welcome news in a mayoral race poll released Wednesday that showed her in third place, with 11% support. Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has polled as the favorite to win the June 24 primary, notched first place in the poll, with 44%, while Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani came in second with 22%, cementing his status as the runner-up candidate in the race.
The poll, conducted by Marist University, marked the first time the speaker has attracted double-digit support for her mayoral run. It came after she recently netted endorsements from DC 37, the city’s largest public-sector union, and State Attorney General Letitia James.
The Council speaker has another shot at getting matching funds on May 30. If she doesn’t qualify then, she won’t get a chance to apply for the public cash again until June 20, just four days before the election.
Todd-Medina said the speaker expects to get matching funds May 30.
Under the matching funds program, mayoral candidates get donations from city residents matched with public cash up to $250 at an 8-to-1 ratio. That equation provides candidates with a key financial lifeline they generally need to air ads and staff their campaigns.
