The mayor’s cash grab

On Thursday, Mayor de Blasio’s reelection campaign will get about $3 million in public matching funds to add to the roughly $5 million he has already raised directly from nearly 10,000 private contributors. With the injection of those public dollars, the mayor must also pledge to debate his Democratic primary rivals, Sal Albanese and Robert Gangi.

The public matching funds are part of the city’s campaign finance law, which liberals like to call the “gold standard” of such statutes. The idea is to amplify the voices of Regular Joes and Janes by putting up taxpayer dollars equivalent to what small-sum private donors give.

But a candidate isn’t automatically entitled to every last dollar, up to the max of $3,832,950 in matching funds for the primary election (the Campaign Finance Board is very precise).

If de Blasio only had nominal opposition, he’d get just a fourth of the money, $958,237.50. To claim the other $2,874,712.50, he has to insist that some of his foes are serious threats. (They’re not.) So, insisting that what isn’t true is true to try to grab the rest of the cash, mighty, coasting-to-thegeneral-if-not-to-reelection de Blasio wrote a letter to the Board attesting to the electoral clout of Albanese and Gangi.

Talk about taking the money and running. We’d begrudge de Blasio the cash less if he were actually prepared to stoop to debate the men he has proclaimed to be formidable.

But under the same Campaign Finance Board’s debate qualification rules, former City Councilman Albanese is on the cusp of getting in, and criminal justice reform advocate Gangi is sure to fall short.

You can’t have it both ways, Bill. If Albanese and Gangi are legitimate rivals necessitating millions in tax dollars, then you must stand on the stage with them and debate. Otherwise, leave the money on the table.