Mayor Eric Adams of New York is planning his campaign to be re-elected. To help pay for it, his team applied for money from the city's public matching funds program. This program is designed to help candidates who raise money from regular citizens.
However, the Campaign Finance Board, which runs the program, denied the mayor's request for millions of dollars. [2, 3] This was a major setback for his campaign. The board stated there were problems, including that the campaign did not provide all the information they asked for. [5, 7]
The board also had 'reason to believe' the campaign might have broken some rules. [3, 4] This is related to an ongoing investigation into how the campaign raised money in the past. Because of these issues, they decided to withhold the funds for now.
The mayor's campaign disagreed strongly with the decision. [4] They said the accusations were vague and that they would look at their legal options. [3] Without these public funds, it will be much more difficult for Mayor Adams to compete with his opponents, who did receive money from the program. [4]