ALBANY – A state Supreme Court justice on Tuesday overturned a decision by New York’s campaign finance board that had barred Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman and his running mate Todd Hood from receiving public matching funds.
The board’s “failure to comply with its own regulation, including its failure to give notice and opportunity to cure, render its determination of ineligibility arbitrary and capricious and affected by error of law,” Justice Denise A. Hartman wrote in her 21-page ruling vacating the board’s March 31 decision.
Blakeman filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court in Albany last month asking the court to restore his campaign’s eligibility for a program that allows a candidate to obtain matching taxpayer money if they raise enough contributions from state residents.
In a 4-3 decision that broke along political lines, the Nassau County executive’s campaign was found ineligible by the board to receive public funds because Hood, the sheriff in Madison County, never filed the required paperwork. That decision, which was criticized by good government groups and Republican lawmakers as a highly partisan move, left Blakeman at a significant financial disadvantage against Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The dispute arose from the first election cycle implementing new “joint-ticket” requirements for governor and lieutenant governor under the Public Campaign Finance Program.
Blakeman filed his registration and certification forms in December and received confirmation that his participation in the program had been certified. The judge noted that in addition to registering his campaign and receiving a response that his compliance with the program had been certified, Blakeman also had attended mandatory training on the program, publicly identified their joint-ticket, and submitted certified amended filings 11 days
before the filing deadline.
The problem was that Hood did not file a separate certification by the February deadline, which the board said had been required under new regulations implemented in January but not shared directly with campaigns.
The board ruled that the Blakeman-Hood ticket was ineligible because the candidates failed to jointly submit their application that was required by new regulations. Public Campaign Finance Board staff admitted they never updated the handbook or training materials, created a specific joint form, or notified candidates of the new requirements. Several of the candidates already received congratulatory emails from regulators telling them they were certified, including Blakeman.
The board also denied matching funds to five other candidates.
Hartman said the board failed to properly implement and explain its new rules for the joint filing requirements for governor and lieutenant governor candidates.
The court found that although Hood failed to file the required paperwork, the board never provided clear guidance or proper forms showing how joining candidates were supposed to comply.
Hartman said the board violated its own regulations by failing to notify the campaign that its application was incomplete and failing to give it a chance to fix the problem before the filing deadline passed.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.