Andrew Cuomo, the former Democratic Governor of New York, faced a significant setback in his political comeback bid when the New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB) denied his campaign nearly $3 million in publicly matched funds. The board’s announcement was made public on Tuesday.

Reasons for the Denial

The NYCCFB detailed that Cuomo’s campaign was ineligible for $2.5 million in funds due to documentation errors found in over 20% of the requisite disclosures related to donations. Furthermore, Cuomo’s campaign did not meet the mandatory benchmark of obtaining contributions from at least 1,000 different individuals, along with a total of a minimum of $250,000.

Just prior to the announcement, the Cuomo campaign attempted to address these issues by sending a frantic email urging past donors to complete a necessary form to validate their contributions, but ultimately, their efforts fell short.

Campaign Response

A spokesperson for Cuomo clarified that the denial stemmed from a “technical software error.” This mistake, originating from the campaign’s vendor platform, NGP, resulted in certain required data fields being missing. Although the error has been rectified and appropriate documentation has been submitted, the campaign will not have access to the matching funds until the next allocation period starts on May 12.

“Our campaign officially announced on March 1, and within 13 days, proudly raised an unprecedented $1.5 million, including $330,000 in matchable funds, from more than 2,800 donors,” said Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesperson.

Azzopardi emphasized that the campaign surpassed the NYCCFB’s threshold necessary for securing matching funds before the March 13 deadline, having raised over $2.5 million from more than 4,100 individual contributions.

Broader Context and Implications

Despite Cuomo’s challenges, other prominent mayoral candidates received their matching funds in the recent payment cycle. However, current Mayor Eric Adams also faced issues, being denied $4.5 million for similar compliance problems, alongside his own bookkeeping errors.

Polling data from Siena College indicated potential support for Cuomo among Democratic voters, while Adams will be seeking reelection as an Independent, not factoring into the survey results. This political climate is further complicated by ongoing federal investigations involving Adams, which raised concerns regarding campaign finance oversight.