Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign hit a snag today, after he was denied matching funds from the Campaign Finance Board, missing out on over $2.5 million from city coffers. New York City’s matching funds program for candidates to citywide offices offers up to eight dollars for every dollar raised by a candidate from city residents. The former governor had raised $332,530 that could have qualified for the CFB’s program.
Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s campaign spokesperson, blamed the issue on the campaign’s donation-collecting software. “Last Friday, the campaign was informed by the campaign finance board that, due to a technical software error, contributions collected on one of our vendor platforms, NGP, were missing one of the fields required by the Campaign Finance Board, and so while we met the thresholds necessary to receive matching funds, the campaign had to remedy this technical matter,” he said. “We have since fully addressed the software issue and have complied with all requirements and will be submitting the proper documentation to the Board within the one-week grace period the board allows to remedy technical issues to receive our eligible matching funds on May 12.”
Cuomo’s campaign has attracted significant support from powerful entities in New York politics since his campaign launched on March 1st. His Fix the City super PAC has gathered over $4.8 million in in donations, most recently by the Trump-supporting billionaire Bill Ackman, who chipped in $250,000 on Tuesday. His campaign has also attracted crucial endorsements from organized labor, including unions that previously backed incumbent Eric Adams, and had even called for then-governor Cuomo to resign in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations.
On the other hand, his campaign seems to be stumbling from one blunder to the next, despite running on his political competence as someone who has held a higher office than the one he’s currently seeking. Last week, the governor released a housing plan that was written, at least in part, with the help of ChatGPT. Then on Monday, the candidate’s team misspelled the names of union leaders who endorsed him when announcing their support.
Nonetheless, Cuomo remains far ahead of the field of Democratic hopefuls according to the most recent polling. He sits at 34% according to a Siena College AARP survey of 556 registered Democrats released on Tuesday, ahead of Democratic Socialist Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani at 16%. While that gap is narrower than previous findings that showed Cuomo at 40% and Mamdani at 12%, a projection of how the ranked-choice election would play out ultimately shows Cuomo beating Mamdani 64% to 36% in the ninth round. Still, the same poll also found that 20% of voters were undecided, which could tip the scales in the other direction depending on which way they ultimately break.
