Blakeman denied public matching funds in decision criticized as partisan

Members of the state Public Campaign Finance Board on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of denying public matching funds to Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the likely Republican nominee for governor. While the outcry from fellow Republicans came as no surprise, a number of good government advocates – including those that rarely align with the GOP – cried foul as well. 

At the conclusion of a heated debate among commissioners of the state PCFB – where Democrat-appointed commissioners hold a three-vote majority – members voted along party lines to deny Blakeman millions of dollars worth of matching funds over a filing error. At issue was a relatively new law that requires candidates for governor to run on a ticket with a lieutenant governor candidate in party primaries – a change from previous elections, when gubernatorial candidates and lieutenant governor candidates ran independently. Blakeman applied for matching funds well before he had selected his running mate Todd Hood, but he never updated his application ahead of a February deadline to include Hood.

“With the race tightening and her poll numbers sagging, it’s no surprise Gov. Kathy Hochul’s handpicked appointee would vote to take away funds from Bruce Blakeman’s campaign,” said Blakeman spokesperson Madison Spanodemos. “While it reeks of corruption, no money in the world can hide Kathy Hochul’s record of driving up taxes, rent, utility bills, and insurance premiums.” Blakeman has retained a lawyer to explore his legal options.

The Hochul campaign denied the PCFB took action to directly benefit the incumbent, or at her behest. “The bipartisan Public Campaign Finance Board makes its own determinations, and the onus is on each campaign to ensure they meet its requirements,” spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said. “‘100% MAGA’ Bruce Blakeman doesn’t need any help from us to run an incompetent, losing campaign – and by embracing Trump’s illegal tariffs and enabling ICE’s overreach, he’s ensuring New Yorkers will send him packing this November.”

While the issue may seem straightforward, good-government groups pointed out the fact the board erred by failing to give Blakeman an opportunity to cure his application once it had adopted new regulations regarding the joint ticket. “The early actions of the Public Campaign Finance Board are really important because they're precedent setting,” said Alex Camarda, senior policy adviser at Reinvent Albany. “All eyes are on them, and they want to establish, it's important to establish a culture of non partisanship … And so for the public campaign finance board to make what appears to be a very highly partisan decision right out of the gate, to deny a major party candidate public matching funds, is a very bad look.”

Camarda said the fact Blakeman’s application ultimately was incomplete should not be in question, despite what Republican commissioners argued during the meeting. But he said the board had the opportunity and responsibility to inform Blakeman of the missing aspect – adding on his lieutenant governor candidate once selected – so he could fix it. Camarda pointed out Blakeman even proactively amended his application after choosing Hood and before the February deadline to update his treasurer. “The board at that point should have said to him, ‘Your application is incomplete because there is no lieutenant governor provided,’ and that his registration needed to be supplemented,” Camarda said. 

Reinvent Albany put out a statement the day before the board vote, urging commissioners not to deny Blakeman matching funds, as did fellow good government groups the Brennan Center for Justice and Citizens Union. The Brennan Center’s legal analysis, included in a letter to the board’s chair and vice chair, concluded Blakeman had “substantially complied with the requirement to jointly register” by announcing his running mate and forming a single committee for both candidates before the deadline to apply for matching funds. The organization further recommended a two-week period to cure the mistake that affected six other candidates who had applied for matching funds as well.

Grace Rauh, executive director of Citizens Union, said on Tuesday after the vote that she said she was “disappointed” in the decision. “New York State’s public campaign finance system is a cornerstone of our democracy, designed to level the playing field and restore public trust in elections,” Rauh said in a new statement. “That trust depends on the program being administered fairly, consistently, and without the appearance of partisan influence. Denying Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman public funds based on a filing deficiency risks undermining that trust.”

Republicans were also quick to denounce Tuesday’s decision from the board. Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra told reporters in Albany he hopes Blakeman takes the decision to court, arguing the board did not adopt regulations requiring the filing of a joint form until after Blakeman had already enrolled in the program.

“I think they’ll be successful because this was, this is, an arbitrary decision,” Ra said. “It’s an extreme step to actually kick the candidate out. They could have reached out to the Blakeman campaign and clarified what he needed to do. The form still does not exist.”

State Republican Party Chair Ed Cox called Hochul and Democrats “drunk on power” and accused them of rigging elections. “Republicans have been warning about the corruptibility of public campaign finance for years, and now New Yorkers are seeing exactly how Democrats will weaponize the system to protect their own power and silence their opposition,” Cox said.

Kate Lisa contributed reporting.