{"id":180117,"date":"2026-03-30T21:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180117\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:15:10","slug":"ny-gop-gov-hopeful-eyes-lawsuit-as-state-dems-poised-to-strip-him-of-millions-in-matching-campaign-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180117\/","title":{"rendered":"NY GOP gov hopeful eyes lawsuit as state Dems poised to strip him of millions in matching campaign funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s Republican gubernatorial hopeful is preparing to possibly sue the state \u2014 accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul<\/a> and her fellow Democrats of \u201ccorruption\u201d and trying to \u201crig the system\u201d by denying him millions in matching campaign funds.<\/p>\n

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who trails Hochul\u2019s massive war chest by nearly $20 million, is reportedly poised to be disqualified from the state\u2019s Public Campaign Finance Program for failing to meet a newly created filing requirement. <\/p>\n

The Public Campaign Finance Board<\/a> \u2014 where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority \u2014 is set to vote Tuesday on Blakeman\u2019s fate in the program, which is at risk over what critics called \u201can easily correctible filing error.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman, the GOP-nominee for Governor in New York, is gearing up to sue the state. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cMy campaign has already been certified for matching funds, and any attempt to disqualify it now would raise serious concerns about political interference,\u201d Blakeman told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf such action occurs, we will pursue legal remedies, including disclosure of communications that may involve Kathy Hochul and her campaign staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board in December \u2014 the same month that Blakeman announced his run<\/a> for governor \u2014 added a rule requiring all candidates on a ticket to file for the public matching funds. Blakeman\u2019s running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, never submitted his own paperwork.<\/p>\n

But the document Hood was required to hand in doesn\u2019t even exist yet, as the board enacted the joint-filing rule without actually creating the form candidates were supposed to use, according to Blakeman\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hochul] is trying to rig the system,\u201d Blakeman\u2019s campaign spokesperson, Madison Spanodemos, claimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe form they claim [Hood] needed to file doesn\u2019t even exist, and Hochul changed the rules right after Bruce qualified \u2014 pure corruption,\u201d she charged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki did not address the allegations, instead taking a swing at Blakeman in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing everyone can agree on about Bruce Blakeman: He knows how to run a losing campaign, and he doesn\u2019t need our help to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hochul] is trying to rig the system,\u201d Blakeman\u2019s campaign spokesperson, Madison Spanodemos, said.\u00a0 Paul Martinka for New York Post<\/p>\n

For Blakeman, the financial stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. If Democrats vote to give him the boot from the program this week, they would be shorting his war chest by roughly $7 million as he continues to trail<\/a> Hochul both at the polls and in funds.<\/p>\n

The Democratic incumbent is currently sitting on over $20 million <\/a>while Blakeman has raised just $3.2 million.<\/p>\n

If the vote goes against him Tuesday, his only recourse would be to sue and bring the state to court as the board has no formal appeals process.<\/p>\n

Blakeman has retained attorney Adam Fusco to explore his options, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders like state and Nassau Dem chairman Jay Jacobs are downplaying any talk of dirty politics. AP<\/p>\n

Non-partisan good government group Reinvent Albany ripped the board on Monday for getting \u201cpoised to vote on partisan lines to deny the Republican candidate for governor public matching funds because of an easily correctible filing error.\u201d<\/p>\n

The harsh response to Blakeman seems to stand in stark contrast to how similar cases have been handled with Democratic candidates, according to Politico.<\/a><\/p>\n

A Democrat challenging Republican state Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra <\/a>also submitted incomplete paperwork, which was missing key information such as her address and even the office she was seeking to run for, Politico reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But instead of immediately tossing the application, a board staffer went out of their way to fill in the missing information on the candiate\u2019s behalf and certified her for the program four days after the due date, the outlet detailed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Only after being caught by Politico, did Democrats release a statement saying that there would be a vote to remove Ra\u2019s challenger from the program, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders, however, are downplaying any talk of dirty politics, and said Blakeman\u2019s \u201cincompetence\u201d was the only reason he has found himself in this situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yet another example of Bruce Blakeman\u2019s ineptitude,\u201d State and Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs<\/a> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been an incompetent county executive for Nassau County and now has demonstrated that his campaign is also incompetent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Republican gubernatorial hopeful is preparing to possibly sue the state \u2014 accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1626,1253,3677,426,776,57,774,9,11,10,49,51,50,13895,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-180117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-bruce-blakeman","9":"tag-campaign-finance","10":"tag-governors","11":"tag-kathy-hochul","12":"tag-long-island","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-nassau-county","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-new-york-state","19":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","20":"tag-new-york-state-news","21":"tag-ny-governor-election-2026","22":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}