Pro-Cuomo PAC responsible for nearly half of all outside spending across all NYC primary elections this year

The pro-Andrew Cuomo independent expenditure committee Fix the City isn’t just dominating spending by outside groups in the New York City mayoral race. It’s dominating spending by any outside group in all New York City primary elections this June.  

Fix the City, a PAC whose most generous funders include former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, DoorDash and hedge funder Bill Ackman, has spent more than $16 million in ads, mailers and more in just one race, amounting to just under half of all outside spending on mayoral, City Council and borough president races across the city this June. As of Wednesday, the PAC had reported $10.5 million in support of Cuomo and $5.9 million in opposition to his biggest competition in the race, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani. (The PAC’s total spending is growing daily, with the committee reporting $2.6 million in additional spending through the state Board of Elections on Thursday, including on campaign literature, print ads, consultant fees and field operations.)

The PAC has brought in more than $24 million in donations – Bloomberg alone donated $8.3 million – making it the biggest PAC in city history, The New York Times reported. While there’s no shortage of active outside spenders in races across the city this June, including on City Council and borough president candidates, they pale in comparison to Fix the City’s largesse. A spokesperson for the PAC declined to comment on the size of its spending.

Candidates for mayor who participate in the city’s matching funds program – as all the main competitors in the Democratic primary are – face the same $8 million spending cap. But independent expenditure committees face no such spending caps.

Cuomo, who is also the beneficiary of outside spending by committees funded by the New York Apartment Association and labor supporters, isn’t the only mayoral candidate who is benefiting from spending by outside groups. But he might as well be, given the relatively paltry amounts being spent on candidates including Mamdani, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. Independent expenditure committees supporting those candidates include ones backed by the Working Families Party and District Council 37.

As of Wednesday’s reporting to the Campaign Finance Board, total spending by outside groups in New York City primary races this cycle landed at $35.8 million. That’s just under the roughly $39 million spent by outside groups by the end of the 2021 primaries, according to CFB reporting.

Cuomo’s deep-pocketed supporters have been the target of criticism by his opponents in the race, including Mamdani, who on Friday called on the CFB to raise the spending cap for campaigns, citing the CFB’s preliminary finding that the Cuomo campaign improperly coordinated with the PAC. 

In a statement, the CFB said that the relevant law allowing the spending cap to be lifted doesn’t apply in this situation. “We understand the challenge posed by independent spenders to the goals of the matching funds program,” the statement read. “The Campaign Finance Board closely monitors spending by all campaigns as well as independent spenders and provides expenditure relief when permitted by law.”