Mayoral candidate Scott Stringer unveils ethics plan, claims he’s maxed out on NYC public matching funds
Mayoral contender Scott Stringer rolled out several ethics reforms he plans to bring to City Hall on Tuesday and attacked his rivals for what he views as their own ethical lapses.
Stringer, who currently serves as city comptroller, said he would bar registered lobbyists from making campaign contributions, ban people with business before the city from donating to elected officials and prohibit the city from signing contracts with those found guilty of breaking campaign finance rules.
“New Yorkers deserve to trust in the integrity of the next mayor,” he said. “We can’t allow a culture of corruption to take root again at City Hall.”
Stringer vowed to appoint an ethics czar and overhaul how City Hall handles Freedom of Information Law requests by making the city’s Department of Investigation an “independent” arbiter on such matters.
And he did not spare his opponents, calling some out by name and reserving more subtle digs for others.
“There’s going to be no ‘agents of the city’ in a Stringer administration,” he said in a thinly veiled dig at Maya Wiley, Mayor de Blasio’s former legal counsel who concocted that term to prevent communications between de Blasio and his outside advisors from becoming public.
Stringer reserved most of his criticism for Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Andrew Yang, though, and called out Yang by name for the support he’s received from wealthy donors and for his plan to give 16-year olds the ability to vote.
“I think Andrew Yang talked today about ethics, and his solution to ethics is that 16-year olds should vote?” he said. “Give me a break. What is happening? They don’t want me because pay-to-play is going to be over.”
But Stringer appeared more reticent over revelations Sunday that opponent Dianne Morales took a bribe and then lied to officials about it. Morales, who, like Stringer, has styled herself as a champion of progressive causes, inherited some of the endorsements Stringer lost in recent weeks over allegations that he sexually harassed and abused campaign volunteer Jean Kim 20 years ago — allegations he has denied.
“The public has to look at all sides,” he said of the more recent Morales scandal. “Obviously, bribery is a very serious, serious allegation.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Stringer claimed that he’s the first candidate in the race to max out on eligibility for public matching funds — a sign that the allegations Kim made on April 28 have not hobbled him as much as many expected.
His spokesman Tyrone Stevens said Stringer is now in line to get a total of more than $6.4 million through the city Campaign Finance Board’s program, bringing his total fundraising to $10.2 million.
The fallout from the Kim allegations led to several key supporters, including the Working Families Party, dropping their endorsements of him. But Stringer’s polling numbers and fundraising operation have appeared to hold steady.
According to a survey conducted by Emerson College and PIX11 released Monday, Stringer is at 15%, on par with Yang and just behind Adams, who had 18% support.
Stevens also suggested his boss’s fundraising remains resilient to Kim’s accusations, noting that his most successful week of unsolicited website fundraising came between April 28 and May 4, after the allegations were first made publicly.
But before Stringer can claim the matching funds his campaign says he’s entitled to, the Campaign Finance Board must certify eligibility, which has yet to take place.
May 17 was the final deadline for candidates to submit their paperwork to the city’s public financing program so they can receive cash matches for money they’ve already raised through donors.
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