One of the most difficult and awkward chores in a political campaign is about to get easier for some candidates in New York. If they are eligible and can decipher the complexities of a new system, some state legislative candidates are going to be able to fatten up their campaign treasuries with public dollars.
The state Legislature in 2020 approved a system for public campaign financing and created a new bureaucracy to administer the program. The Public Campaign Financing Board (PCFB) has published procedures and has been conducting training sessions with candidates and campaign committee treasurers. The first checks will be going out in March.
A candidate wishing to participate in public financing must according to the PCFB rules:
- Be a candidate in a primary/general/special election for statewide or state legislative district offices
- Be opposed by another candidate who is not a write-in
- Not make expenditures from personal funds (including spouse or unemancipated child) in excess of 3 times contribution limits for an individual
- Meet threshold requirements for the number of matchable contributions received and the total monetary contributions received
- Receive training before receiving public matching funds
- Adhere to all program requirements (disclosure, contribution limits, etc.)
The deadline to register and apply for the program is February 26.
Contributions must be from a “natural person” residing in the district of the candidate and be in the range of five to two-hundred-fifty dollars. Payment of the public funds will work as follows: “twelve dollars of public matching funds for each of the first fifty dollars of matchable contributions; nine dollars of public matching funds for each of the next one hundred dollars of public matchable contributions; and eight dollars for the each of the next one hundred dollars of public matchable contributions.”
A Senate candidate participating in the program can receive up to $375,000 in both a primary and general election if they otherwise meet the program requirements. The maximum public matching funds for an Assembly candidate is $175,000 in both a primary and general election.
As of February 12 there were 225 applicants for public financing. State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is one of them. Statewide candidate matching funds will be available in 2026. The 224 legislative candidates who have signed up are running in at least 88 different Assembly districts and 44 Senate districts throughout the state.
To date there are no Western New York Democratic applicants. Republicans include:
- Senator George Borello (57th district)
- Senator Pat Gallivan (60th district)
- Assemblyman Stephan Hawley (139th district)
- Assemblyman Michael Norris (144th district; Norris had no opponent in 2022)
- Assemblyman Angelo Morinello (145th district)
- Candidate Mitch Martin (147th district, opposing incumbent David DiPietro)
- Candidate Marc Priore (142nd district, presently represented by Democrat Pat Burke)
- Candidate Pat Chludzinski (143rd district, presently represented by Democrat Monica Wallace)
- Joe Flatley, who announced a run for the 142nd district but subsequently dropped out – after conducting a fundraiser
Applying to participate in the program provides no assurance that a candidate will ever receive any state money. As an example of how the new program might work we can take a look at the recent campaign financial filing of Mitch Martin, a Republican candidate in the 147th district.
In his first filing as a candidate in January Martin reported raising $18,178. That money came from 78 donations but not all of them would qualify for matching public funds. Here’s how things would break down:
- 3 of the donations were for amounts in excess of $250, making them ineligible for matching funds
- 7 were from businesses or organizations that are not “natural persons,” a requirement of the law
- 42 were from donors whose listed address is outside of the 147th district, also a requirement of the law
With the exclusions applied, just 26 of the donations appear to qualify for public matching funds. The law requires a minimum of 75 in-district donors, so Martin falls short of that number. The amount those donors gave was $3,790 but the law requires at least $6,000 in eligible donations. In addition, for donors who gave $100 or more the campaign must provide information about the donor’s occupation and business address. An analysis of the financial reports of other participants in the program would likely show similar results concerning which donations are matchable.
Candidates who are participating in the state program are required to file financial statements with the PCFB on March 15th reporting on every donation, loan, and expenditure. Candidates like Martin will have the opportunity to continue raising money to get them up to the required level of donors and the dollar amount those donors contributed.
To show the potential value of the eligible contributions already received by Martin, if all the “t’s” are crossed and the “i’s” dotted, the eligible contributions already collected would produce $33,910 in state matching funds.
Issues
Public campaign financing comes with a variety of potential problems. The requirements concerning residency, dollar amount, and employment information of donors need to be checked.
Recently there have been indictments in New York City’s public campaign financing program where an alleged straw donor scheme was being employed to increase access to public money by donors trying to spread their cash to others who were making what appeared on the surface to be eligible donations. Wikipedia explains a straw donor as follows: “a straw donor may contribute to a political campaign before being reimbursed by another, who is using that person as a conduit to exceed the limits on campaign contributions under the laws of a jurisdiction.”
Experiments in democracy don’t always come off as planned. We are about to watch one such experiment in real time. It should be very interesting.
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