Maya Wiley’s campaign fails to qualify for public matching funds in NYC mayoral race
Mayoral contender Maya Wiley still hasn’t qualified for public matching funds through the city’s Campaign Finance Board, a snag that could signal lean times ahead for her campaign.
The board, which oversees the city’s public financing system, announced the news at a Tuesday hearing — about a month after Team Wiley said it would meet the threshold to receive matching funds.
In mid-January, her campaign indicated that Wiley had raised $715,000 from 7,000 donors, with at least $280,000 of that qualifying as match-eligible — that’s more than the $250,000 threshold the city requires to qualify. That would have brought her to a total of about $3 million in total cash raised at the time.
But on Tuesday, Wiley did not receive any matching funds from the board, while the only two mayoral hopefuls who did qualify — city Comptroller Scott Stringer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams – got $1.17 million and $788,443 in matching fund payments, respectively.
Wiley’s current ineligibility is not set in stone, though, and may stem from technical issues in data her campaign submitted to the Campaign Finance Board, such as donors’ addresses and employer information being recorded correctly.
If such issues are corrected, and Wiley remains over the $250,000 threshold, she could be eligible to receive matching funds in March, which, while not ideal, is better than receiving no funds at all.
The board’s audit of a campaign’s data “can result in a campaign falling below the threshold to qualify for public funds payments,” said finance board spokesman Matt Sollars.
“However, all campaigns can provide additional documentation — to clarify a contributor’s address or employer information, for instance — to validate that a contribution is eligible to be matched with public funds,” he said. “Additional documentation provided by campaigns may be considered for the public funds payment scheduled for March 15 or for subsequent payments throughout the election year.”
A spokeswoman for the Wiley campaign said it is in the process of evaluating the Campaign Finance Board’s reasoning for not qualifying the campaign for matching funds.
