Is NYC’s Expensive Campaign Finance Program Worth The Cost?

New York City’s Campaign Finance Board recently doled out $37 million in matching funds to candidates running for public office, the highest in the CFB’s history. Their 8-to-1 matching program is supposed to level the playing field and encourage campaigns to rely on small donors instead of big money and special interests. But in two different special elections in Queens, several candidates received tens of thousands of dollars in public financing and only a few hundred votes, leaving some to question whether, during a financial crisis, city taxpayer money should be spent differently.

“I’m concerned that we are wasting a tremendous amount of public funds for people to have vanity projects,” said Patrick Jenkins, a political consultant and District Leader in Queens.

He pointed to the race for a city council seat in a district that includes Fresh Meadows, Briarwood and Jamaica Estates where one candidate, Mujib Rahman, received $131,320 in matching funds but only 192 votes, less than 3% of all ballots.

Rahman told Gothamist/WNYC that the pandemic and winter weather kept him from connecting with voters in traditional ways such as knocking on doors and visiting houses of worship. “So we tried our best but Covid and snow, people don’t come out, “ he said. “It’s not the public funds or us.” He said the public funds covered the cost of sending out mailers and making phone calls. He said he also bought $8700 worth of food for volunteers working near poll sites on election day. All candidates list their expenses on the CFB’s website.

A board spokesman said that candidates must prove how they are spending their money by providing proof such as contracts, invoices and payroll reports. After an auditing process, money spent on anything that doesn’t meet standards must be paid back. The CFB said, by the law, the audit is supposed to take 16-18 months but that in some cases, there would be extensions. Public funds that don’t get spent must also be returned and cannot be saved for use on a future campaign.

“The matching funds program helps ensure that candidates do not have to rely on big contributions from special interests, but can run for city office based on small-dollar support from city voters,” said Matthew Sollars, Director of Public Relations for New York City’s Campaign Finance Board.

Rahman said if anyone deserves criticism for campaign spending it’s the group called Common Sense NYC, which influenced the race by funding negative ads that ran during the final days of the race against the candidate who came in second.

“They do the harm,” he said of the independent expenditure group.

To qualify for matching funds, a City Council candidate must raise a minimum of $5,000 from at least 75 people who live in their district. Only the first $175 of a contribution is matchable. Jenkins said that leads to too many candidates crowding the field and inundating voters with mailers and calls.

“There definitely needs to be a higher bar to receive the funds, “ he said.

But LaToya Benjamin, who recently ran for City Council in District 31, said it was important to keep the door open to more candidates. She said she was a serious viable candidate even though she only received 340 votes, about 5% of ballots cast in the district that includes parts of the Far Rockaway peninsula, Laurelton, Springfield Gardens and Rosedale in Queens. She blamed her poor showing on several factors.

“When you think about the historical barriers and challenges that exist in urban communities and urban communities of color, on top of the pandemic and the digital divide, it adds to the challenge,” Benjamin said.

The 34-year-old candidate said she has a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Masters in Urban Policy and Administration from Brooklyn College and was often studying many of the issues that she was living in southeast Queens.

“It creates a duality that a lot of people don’t come to the table with in public office,” she said. “I feel like I was the most qualified because this is my lived experience being a resident of this district that I’m running for and have studied at a high level.”

Benjamin, who received about $84,000 in public financing, also pointed out that she was not the party establishment’s pick, even though she works for the New York State Senate, and chose to run an independent campaign instead.

Susan Lerner from Common Cause New York said she thought the city’s campaign finance system was far better than the state’s approach to running special elections. The state offers no public financing, making it even more difficult for someone like Benjamin to succeed, and relies instead on the local county chair of the party to pick a candidate who almost always wins the seat.

“Now some of the people who run ultimately don’t garner a large percentage,” she said. “It’s still healthier to have a real choice for the voters and not just a hand-chosen candidate by a political party take the office.”

In District 31, the establishment candidate, Selvena Brooks-Powers, is in the lead but only by a small amount. The race is still undecided because no candidate received more than 50% of the vote. As per the new rules of ranked-choice voting, the person who came in last will be eliminated and their second choice votes will be distributed accordingly. The elimination and reallocation process will continue until there is a clear winner.

Benjamin is hoping the process will garner her many more votes.