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New York Campaign Finance Board Supports Expanding Donor Oversight Powers Amid Adams Campaign Issues
The head of New York City’s Campaign Finance Board expressed support Friday for a series of town hall bills that would expand the watchdog’s straw donor enforcement powers amid ongoing questions and investigations related to Mayor Adams’ campaign.
Neither the mayor nor his campaign were accused of wrongdoing. Still, Adams’ 2021 campaign has gone through several state It is federal investigations on allegations that he received a plethora of “straw donations,” which are made by individuals who write them in the name of another unknown person or reimburse someone to send the money for them.
This type of political financing is illegal because such donations end up exceeding limits on how much money an individual can donate and can also unlock matching public funds that campaigns are not entitled to.
Five Adams campaign supporters, including a friend and former NYPD colleague of the mayor, were criminally convicted to date to run donor schemes to boost his 2021 run in the hope that this would pave the way for business opportunities with his administration.
Brooklyn Councilman Lincoln Restler, a Democrat who often criticizes Adamsheld a hearing on Friday morning a set of accounts This would bolster ways in which the Campaign Finance Board could eradicate impromptu donations. Repeatedly throughout the hearing, Restler referred to the ongoing investigations into Adams’ fundraising operation as a reason to expand the CFB’s authorities, saying that “there were major differences in the way money came into his campaign” in compared to those of his competitors in the 2021 mayoral race.
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Shawn Inglima for the New York Daily News
New York City Councilman Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn) speaks at a rally on the steps of City Hall in Manhattan, April 21, 2022. (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News)
In response to Restler’s lament, Paul Ryan, the newly appointed executive director of Campaign Finance Counciltestified that he could not comment specifically on Adams, citing his agency’s ongoing audit of his 2021 campaign. But Ryan told Restler that he supports many of the bills the hearing focused on.
One bill in particular doesn’t go far enough, Ryan argued.
The measure in question would require campaigns for municipal public bodies to report the mailing addresses of all their donors to the CFB so the board can send them physical postcards explaining the details of their contributions.
Ryan said he would like the bill to also require campaigns to report the phone numbers and email addresses of their donors so that the CFB can easily contact them if concerns arise about the legality of their contributions.
“I think it would help uncover these impromptu donors,” Ryan said, adding that voters are statistically “much more receptive to email and phone contact” than to paper correspondence.
Restler said he liked Ryan’s suggestion.
In addition to Restler’s legislative push, Ryan said the CFB is looking to adopt “more meaningful technology” to automatically match signatures on contribution receipts, which campaign supporters fill out along with their donations, in order to ensure that a person listed as a donor of money is the same person who signed the card.
This revelation comes after the media outlet The City reported that several donations made as part of Adams’ fundraising campaign in Queens, co-hosted by Winnie Greekan advisor to the mayor whose houses were raided by the FBI in February, cards arrived with signatures that did not match those of the listed collaborators.
Ryan also said he tentatively supports a Restler bill that would require campaigns to respond within 30 days to any requests for information the board issues related to donations that concern him.
He also agreed to a third piece of legislation that would broaden the definition and impose new restrictions on “intermediaries”that pool donations for campaigns, sometimes on a salary basis.
Rester’s bills likely cannot become law unless they receive Adams’ support.
Spokespeople for the mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment after Friday’s hearing.
Ryan testified that he was skeptical of the 30-day bill’s proposal that the CFB cease issuing any public matching funds to campaigns that did not respond within the prescribed time frame.
“Under this provision, a candidate could respond to a CFB request in the heat of an election with only a few days delay, with information confirming that all related contributions are legal and were reported correctly, and still be completely disqualified from the public counterpart funds program. ,” he said.