Former Adams adviser is key force behind super PAC boosting Cuomo with unprecedented cash

The main super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral run has given the ex-governor a financial edge that’s tough for his opponents to compete with, and a key architect of the outside spending strategy is Meaghan Brown — a prominent player who left Mayor Adams’ administration early this year, the Daily News has learned.

Brown joined the pro-Cuomo PAC, Fix the City, as its chief operating officer upon its launch in late February, weeks after resigning from Adams’ administration. As part of that role, a source said, Brown has devised and overseen all day-to-day activities of the PAC, which is raising and spending unprecedented amounts of money to support Cuomo’s mayoral bid.

Under Adams, Browns served as chief operating officer of his 2021 transition committee before joining his administration as its chief of external affairs. In that post, Brown was one of the mayor’s top City Hall liaisons to private sectors like real estate and finance.

According to reviews of public disclosures, executives in those same business sectors have contributed more than half of the nearly $14 million Fix the City has raised to date under Brown’s stewardship. That’s the largest amount of cash ever pulled in by a PAC for a single New York election.

Fix the City is also the single biggest spender of the city’s 2025 election cycle — a development raising alarm from government ethics watchdogs.

Filings show the PAC had as of earlier this week already spent more than $8.5 million on airing ads and sending out mailers plugging Cuomo’s bid to become mayor and attacking his top opponent, Zohran Mamdani.

That means the PAC has shelled out more than any of the candidates in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary can legally spend on their own, as they’re constrained by the $7.9 million campaign cap. That gives an undeniable financial upper-hand to Cuomo, who’s consistently polling as the favorite.

And Fix the City is likely to only keep spending to promote Cuomo’s candidacy in the final days of the race, as it had raised more than $13.7 million as of Friday morning, with more donations coming in daily.

By law, the PAC can raise and spend as much as it wants — without any limits on how donors can give — as long as it doesn’t coordinate any political activities with Cuomo’s campaign.

“It’s absolutely undermining democracy, here and in other places of the United States, because you can put in an infinite amount of money — literally infinity — into a single candidate and there’s nothing New York City could do to stop it because the Supreme Court legalized it in 2014,” John Kaehny, executive director of the Reinvent Albany watchdog group, said, a reference to the decision that ended PAC contribution limits.

No other 2025 mayoral candidates have received the type of outside independent support Cuomo enjoys. New Yorkers for Lower Costs, a super PAC boosting Mamdani, had by contrast only raised about $400,000 as of the latest filing.

Liz Benjamin, Fix the City’s spokeswoman, praised Brown’s role in making the PAC the most dominant financial force in the 2025 mayoral race, saying she “cares deeply about New York City and its future.”

“She strongly believes that Andrew Cuomo is the only candidate for mayor who has advanced common sense proposals to make the city safer, successful and more affordable and possesses the experience necessary to get big things done,” Benjamin said.

While still at City Hall, Brown served directly under First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who was pressured by Adams to resign in October 2024 after her home was raided as part of a federal corruption probe. Allies of Wright, who hasn’t been criminally charged, believed Adams — who was himself under federal indictment at the time — treated his first deputy unfairly on her way out, and Brown was among them, sources familiar with the matter told The News this month.

Brown, who worked with Wright in the nonprofit sector for years before joining Adams’ administration, went on leave from City Hall around the time of Wright’s resignation, Benjamin confirmed. Brown then officially resigned in January. Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said Brown departed City Hall on good terms.

In addition to Fix the City, one of the city’s largest landlord lobbies has launched another super PAC committed to spend some $2.5 million on efforts to back Cuomo’s run.

The heavy PAC spending on Cuomo has helped offset troubles he’s experiencing with his own campaign finance infrastructure. Many prominent Adams donors this year are instead supporting Cuomo as the mayor faced intense political fallout from his corruption indictment.

The city government’s elections watchdog agency continues to withhold nearly $1 million in public matching funds from Cuomo’s campaign due to a suspicion it has coordinated spending activities with Fix the City.

But Fix the City isn’t impacted by the matching funds denial and its spending makes the withheld matching funds seem like chump change, Kaehny argued.

“Because he has the super PACs, it does not matter,” he said. “That’s the sad fact.”

With Josephine Stratman 

Originally Published: June 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM EDT