James gets a $taff injection
AS SHE WAS approaching the threshold to qualify for more than $750,000 in taxpayer matching funds, Public Advocate Letitia James’ campaign coffers got a boost from her own staff and people connected to her consultants, records show.
In August, the last campaign filing period before the primary, James received $1,770 in donations from members of her staff in 13 different contributions, records show. In the same period, she pulled in $1,725 from people connected with the Hamilton Campaign Network, which is running her reelection bid — with most of those coming Aug. 28, the final day of the last contribution cycle before the primary election.
Not all of the cash counted toward the matching funds — which pay a candidate for donations only from city residents and only up to $175.
If James had collected $125,000 in matching claims by that date, she would have qualified for matching funds in the primary, when she faced Democrat David Eisenbach — but she fell short, and didn’t qualify until the next cycle and the general election.
On Sept. 22, after hitting the threshold, James filed a “statement of need” arguing she faced more than “minimal” opposition from Republican J.C. Polanco and required 100% of her matching funds — which amounts to more than $750,000 paid to her campaign. Those same funds can help James get reelected and pay her staff and consultants.
James, who did not accept matching funds in 2013, is widely expected to win her reelection bid. In order to show a need for the matching funds, she attached news coverage of Polanco’s campaign — including one article that noted he had raised little money.
As of Friday, Polanco had raised just $23,510, with no matching funds. By comparison, James had raised $940,934 and received another $756,486 in matching funds.
“As far as why they took it you’re going to have to ask them,” Polanco told The News. “As for me, I have always seen myself as a worthwhile candidate.”
Polanco, a television personality who sparred with James in the most substantive and civil debate of the election cycle, argued his campaign “wasn’t one that should have been taken lightly by anyone.”
“I wish that I had the funds necessary so that I could take the message throughout the city, of reform, that I put forth the last six months,” he said.
Mayor de Blasio, also widely expected to win reelection, took millions in matching funds this year. Controller Scott Stringer, who faces a longshot opponent in former Jet Michel Faulkner, has opted not to accept matching funds.
When it comes to in-house contributions, Stringer’s campaign also doesn’t accept donations from the controller’s staff. De Blasio’s campaign accepts contributions from his staffers but doesn’t solicit them.
James’ campaign also did not solicit donations from staffers, it said, and noted that the flurry of donations in August also coincided with a period when they were putting out a higher frequency of general fund-raising appeals via email and events.
In total in 2017, James received $3,170 in donations from 18 different members of her staff.
“If a staff member chooses to voluntarily support the campaign, they do so on their volition,” said James’ government spokeswoman, Anna Brower, who gave $75 in June.
James also racked in $1,725, all in August, from eight people connected to the head of Hamilton Campaign Network, Luis Miranda Jr. Those donors included Miranda’s wife; their son, the “Hamilton” scribe and star LinManuel Miranda, and several employees of The Hispanic Federation, which Miranda founded. All came in a 20-day period in August; five were on the final day of that filing period.
“Public Advocate James has been a longtime champion of public campaign financing, so we can take big money out of politics. She’s proud to run a campaign fueled by thousands of small dollar donors from across New York City,” campaign spokesman Angel Vazquez said.
Not all of those donations would count toward matching funds — at least one donor connected to Miranda was from outside the city. Manuel Miranda donated $1,000; only $175 of that would count toward matching funds. Several of James’ staffers had also donated more than $175 to her during the course of the election cycle, and the dollars above that amount would not yield matching claims.