Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman won\u2019t be able to access as much as $7 million of public funds for his gubernatorial campaign after a state election board said he didn\u2019t file the required paperwork.<\/p>\n
Blakeman and good-government watchdogs condemned the vote, which was adopted along party lines. The public financing program is designed to boost challengers and reduce the structural advantages of incumbents like Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s Public Campaign Finance Board on Tuesday voted that Blakeman, who secured the Republican nomination last month<\/a>, filed a deficient application because he didn\u2019t list his running mate. The resolution<\/a> also applied to five minor-party candidates.<\/p>\n The vote occurred as a new Siena University poll shows<\/a> Blakeman gaining on Hochul. Her lead over Blakeman has declined from 20 points in February to 13 points this week.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the race tightening and her poll numbers sagging, it\u2019s no surprise Kathy Hochul\u2019s handpicked appointee would vote to take away funds from Bruce Blakeman\u2019s campaign,\u201d spokesperson Madison Spanodemos said, adding the decision \u201creeks of corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign has retained a lawyer to explore its legal options, according to a campaign official not authorized to speak publicly.<\/p>\n Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said the campaign finance board made its own determination and that \u201cthe onus is on each campaign to ensure they meet its requirements.\u201d Radulovacki responded to the Siena poll by saying the governor is focused on lowering costs for families and keeping them safe.<\/p>\n To qualify for funds,<\/a> any candidate for governor must raise $500,000 from at least 5,000 state residents who give $1,050 or less. The first $250 of those contributions is matched six to one by taxpayers.<\/p>\n The maximum aggregate payout for a candidate is $3.5 million in both a primary and general election. Blakeman faces a possible primary challenge from Larry Sharpe, a libertarian candidate.<\/p>\n Hochul announced earlier this month that she wouldn\u2019t participate in the program<\/a>. She reported $20.2 million in her campaign war chest<\/a> in January. Blakeman reported $1.6 million cash on hand earlier this month and is seeking matching funds for $1.4 million.<\/p>\n Democrats on the Public Campaign Finance Board, who hold a 4-3 voting majority, said Blakeman\u2019s running mate Todd Hood never filed a certification asking for public funds. They said the requirement to list a running mate was unanimously adopted at a public meeting in December.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are rules, there’s laws, there are regulations, and they have to be followed,\u201d said board chair Barbara Lifton, who was appointed by Hochul. \u201cI think we’d be hurting a program, frankly, to start playing favorites.\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans on the board argued that Blakeman applied to participate in the program and was accepted before the board promulgated new rules requiring that gubernatorial candidates list their picks for lieutenant governor. They said no form with a field for a running mate has been created, and candidates weren\u2019t notified of the change.<\/p>\n Brian Kolb, the Republican vice-chair of the Public Campaign Finance Board, called Tuesday\u2019s vote \u201c\u2018gotcha\u2019 politics that is frankly disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an abomination of trying to do bureaucratic nonsense to try to eliminate candidates for an election,\u201d he said. \u201cIt defeats the whole purpose of the Public Campaign Finance Board to the voters, to the donors who want to participate in New York state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman won\u2019t be able to access as much as $7 million of public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-182167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182167","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=182167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}