By Joe Anuta
A report on City Comptroller John Liu’s fund-raising for the mayoral race provides insight into the city Campaign Finance Board’s decision to deny him public matching funds.
On Monday, the board voted to withhold about $3.5 million from Liu, which would have more than doubled his current war chest and matched the total money he has already raised on his own, dealing a crippling blow to the campaign.
“I am disappointed in the CFB’s decision to not only deny my campaign, but to deny thousands of New Yorkers of their ability to leverage their own dollars,” Liu said in a statement.
In contrast, frontrunner Council Speaker Quinn (D-Manhattan) received more than $3.5 million from the board for the race, bringing her cash on hand to an estimated $9.3 million, dwarfing Liu’s account.
Despite the mammoth setback, the comptroller vowed to push on with his mayoral bid, though he has been polling near the back of the six-person Democratic field.
Liu also said he would appeal, but the process could take weeks and, should he win, likely would not leave time to spend the money in any meaningful way.
In reviewing Liu’s roughly 6,500 donations, the board initially flagged about 550 it considered questionable, then commissioned a company called Thacher Associates to hone in on 85 contributors for interviews. The contractor spoke to 22 of the donors and conversed with 19 family members, according to the report.
The board considered the document — along with separate information from a federal trial where two former Liu campaign aides were found guilty in May of attempting to solicit fake donors — as providing enough proof to question the entirety of Liu’s campaign contributions.
“The evidence suggests that the potential violations are serious and pervasive across the campaign’s fund-raising,” Finance Board Chairman Father Joseph Parkes said in a statement.
The board dishes out taxpayer funds on a 6:1 ratio for all contributions of $175 or under for New York City residents in an effort to keep special interests out of the race. The denial means Liu only has about $1.5 million left on hand, putting him at a serious disadvantage as the Sept. 10 primary draws near.
Martin Connor, Liu’s lawyer, called the questionable donations a fraction of the total and referred to the Thacher report as “bulls–t” in conversations with the board.
“A complete denial of matching funds is the equivalence of imposing the death penalty for pickpocketing,” Connor wrote in a response to the report.
Out of the interviews, two contributors told Thacher they had been reimbursed for their donations. Several of the contributors could not be traced back to their listed addresses, others lived in low-income residences that seemed incongruent with their donation and others had connections to companies and donors discussed during the federal trial, according to the report. The authors also suggested that some subjects lied.
“Their professional opinion, based on over six decades of experience, is that some of the contributors interviewed were not credible when they stated that they had not been reimbursed for their contributions,” the report said.
Connor argued that the campaign had no way of knowing about fake or “straw donors,” which are typically used to hide the true source of the money, and subsequently refunded all donations after the report was released.
The lawyer also blasted the residence information, saying a donor does not have to be physically living at the listed address. He took issue with the inclusion of affordable housing incomes, which the report used to prove some of the $800 contributions would have constituted a month’s rent for contributors, some of whom listed their jobs as dishwashers or other low-paying positions.
“Raising this issue in the context of a campaign supported largely by Asian Americans is inappropriate and offensive,” Connor wrote.
The members of the board are appointed by Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is often at odds with Liu.
Two members of the ruling board bundled contributions for Quinn: one was appointed by the speaker and the other by the mayor.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
