Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who’s among a sprawling field of candidates challenging incumbent Eric Adams in June’s Democratic mayoral primary, saw just more than half of all matching-funds claims she submitted in the most recent reporting period denied due to filing mishaps, according to records obtained by the Daily News.
The records show Ramos, a progressive Democrat, submitted 516 donations to be publicly matched in the period that closed Oct. 7, but the Campaign Finance Board rejected 261, or about 51%, of them as “invalid.” The stated reasons for the denials were various and included error codes like “incomplete address” and contributors being “on lobbyist registration as relative or employee of lobbyist.”
Ramos’ denial rate put her in the company of Mayor Adams, whose reelection campaign submitted 268 claims in the latest period and got 134, exactly 50%, of them dismissed as “invalid” by the CFB, as first reported by The News last week.
AP
State Sen. Jessica Ramos (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
Unlike Ramos, though, Adams was further denied public matching funds altogether this week by the CFB due to concern about his federal indictment, which alleges he solicited bribes and illegal straw donations for his 2021 and 2025 campaigns, mostly from Turkish government operatives. Adams has pleaded not guilty and is facing trial in Manhattan in April.
The three other 2025 candidates who fundraised throughout the last reporting period — Comptroller Brad Lander, Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and former Comptroller Scott Stringer — had far lower matching-funds denial rates in the July 12-Oct. 7 span.
The records, obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request, show Lander got about 11% of his claims denied, while Myrie’s rate was 13% and Stringer’s 12% — all below the roughly 20% threshold a veteran campaign finance expert recently said is within the norm.
Ramos’ campaign spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
Ben Kallos, Ramos’ campaign attorney, blamed the high denial rate on “a longstanding issue” with a donation software called NationBuilder that her team has since stopped using to process contributions for matches.
“The Campaign Finance Board has a longstanding issue with NationBuilder that the campaign inadvertently got caught between when it launched,” Kallos said. “The campaign has transitioned over to using the [CFB’s] contribute system and ActBlue, where the Campaign Finance Board is matching every small dollar. This really isn’t something campaigns should have to worry about.”
Ultimately, Ramos’ denial rate in the period didn’t play a factor in the first public matching-funds payment round this past Monday, since she had not met the fundraising threshold required to be eligible for a disbursement.
The matching funds program provides mayoral candidates with $8 in public cash for every $1 raised from a city resident, up to $250, a calculus that can provide a massive boost for any given campaign. In order to be eligible, though, candidates need to have raised at least $250,000 in private funds from 1,000 city residents — a threshold neither Ramos nor Myrie had met as of the latest reporting window.
Lander did meet the threshold in the last period, but failed to submit a piece of required paperwork in time, rendering him ineligible, too.
Lander, Ramos, Myrie and Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who joined the mayoral race after the end of the last reporting period, have all said they expect to meet the threshold and be eligible for public matching funds on the next payment date, Jan. 15.
Adams is in a different situation due to his indictment.
He has met the threshold for eligibility, but it remains to be seen whether he can get any matching funds this election cycle, since the CFB, citing his indictment, determined on Monday that he could not get the first payout since “there is reason to believe that the Adams campaign has engaged in conduct detrimental to the matching funds program in violation of law.” Adams can appeal that decision, though his campaign hasn’t yet said if he will.
