The New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) announced that “independent expenditure committees,” sometimes referred to as IEs or Super PACs, reported a new collective spending total in the 2021 New York City elections of over $18.6 million, as of Friday, June 11. This was mostly spent on mayoral candidates but also includes cumulative spending on other candidates like District 14 City Council candidates, Adolfo Abreu and Pierina Sanchez, and District 15 City Council candidate and Bronx Community Board 7 District Manager, Ischia Bravo.

 

A Super PAC is a political campaign that advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, which operates independent of candidates, neither consulting with the candidates nor with the candidates’ authorized political action committee (PAC) or political party.

 

Super PACs must file disclosure statements with the CFB once they have spent more than $1,000 on a single candidate or ballot initiative. There are no limits on contributions or spending. However, every Super PAC is required to report information about its expenditures and its sources of funding, including:

 

• The owners, officers, and board members of organizations that contribute to independent spenders/Super PACs.
• The funding sources of organizations that contribute more than $50,000 to independent spenders/Super PACs.
• IE / Super PAC materials must include “paid for by” notices listing the spender’s principal owner, CEO and top three donors, as well as a URL for the CFB’s web site directing voters to additional information.

 

Some of the names used by Super PACs can be deceptive. For example, Voters of NYC Inc. has entities behind it which are based in Miami, Utah and Delaware, and many are real estate entities. According to the CFB, these PACs are not constrained in terms of the names they choose for themselves, as long as they disclose to the CFB who the entities are behind them and comply with all other rules.

 

In terms of Bronx City Council candidates, the latest report sent to the CFB, as of Friday, June 11, confirmed that Common Sense NYC, Inc. spent $5,000 in recent ads, opposing Abreu, who was recently endorsed by, among others, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while Laborers Building a Better New York spent $11,202 on recent ads, supporting Abreu.

Campaign ads seen on New York City’s subways, paid for by the “See No Evil campaign” apparently in support of Republican mayoral candidate, Curtis Sliwa, a talk-show host, who was recently endorsed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, himself a former advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Hotel Workers for Stronger Communities spent $7,028 on recent ads supporting Sanchez, who has been endorsed by, among others, the Bronx Democratic Party. This is also the total cumulative amount this particular PAC has spent on Sanchez, to date. Laborers Building a Better New York spent $11,146 on recent ads supporting Bravo, who, among others, has been backed by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

 

To date, in the District 15 primary race, Laborers Building a Better New York has spent $26,366 in support of Bravo’s campaign. The PAC also previously contributed $8,156 to District 11 City Councilman Eric Dinowitz ahead of the recent District 11 special election held on March 23, as well as $5,235 to Bravo’s special election campaign in District 15.

 

Meanwhile, the amounts listed in the “Total” column in the excel table below refer to recent spending only, and not to cumulative totals, to date, spent by Super PACs, supporting or opposing the listed candidates.

On New York’s subways, cryptic campaign ads targeting various Democratic mayoral candidates, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former U.S. presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, and apparently (though it is not really clear) former New York City Sanitation Commissioner and Food Czar, Kathryn Garcia, were seen on Thursday, June 10.

 

The series of postcard-style ads includes one which seems to back Republican candidate, founder of the nonprofit, Guardian Angels, and radio talk show host, Curtis Sliwa. The ads have been sponsored by the “See No Evil” campaign. Sliwa has been endorsed by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, himself, a former advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

 

Separate from the Super PAC/independent expenditure committee process is the “public matching funds” program, where candidates running for office can apply to the CFB for taxpayer funded dollars which are paid to the candidates directly, for use by their campaigns to spend as they choose (in accordance with certain rules) and based on the candidate’s own private fundraising efforts.

 

To qualify for public matching funds, candidates must meet certain private fundraising thresholds, demonstrating support from within their communities by meeting a two-part fundraising threshold, and they must abide by the other requirements set in the Campaign Finance Act.

 

The eligibility thresholds encourage candidates to raise small contributions from voters living within the city. For instance, to qualify for public funding in City Council races, candidates must raise at least $5,000 privately from city residents. Only the first $175 contributed per city resident counts towards meeting the threshold.

The CFB provides public matching funds out of the city’s General Fund to qualifying candidates at a rate of $8 for every $1 raised privately by the candidates from New York City residents, up to the first $175 for donations to city council and borough president candidates, and up to $250 for donations to citywide positions like mayor, for a maximum payment-per-resident of $1,400 or $2,000, respectively.

 

As previously reported by Norwood News, the CFB has issued nearly $96 million in total public matching funds directly to matching funds program participating candidates in the 2021 elections — the most in the history of New York City’s campaign finance program. Candidates are not obliged to participate in the CFB’s public matching funds program, though many choose to do so.

As of May 21, according to the CFB, total private contributions for all New York City candidates amounted to nearly $60.3 million, substantially less than the $96 million paid out in total by the CFB to all candidates signed up for the public matching funds program.

 

As of May 27, public matching funds had also dwarfed the amounts spent, up to that date, by the independent Super PACs, which, at that date, had reported spending $15.7 million on various city candidates, mostly on the race for mayor, as mentioned earlier. In about two weeks, that amount has now gone up by $2.9 million, to the new total of $18.6 million mentioned above.

 

Effective June 8, these Super PACs are now required to report new spending on a daily basis through primary election day, June 22.