Mayor Eric Adams just got a financial slap from the City Campaign Finance Board (CFB), denying him a hefty $3 million in matching funds for his independent run in the November 2025 election.
While Adams struggles with dismal approval ratings and political baggage, the CFB’s refusal to grant him access to the city’s generous 8-to-1 matching funds program—first denied back in December of the prior year—has left his campaign scrambling, even as competitors like Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa rake in millions in public support, New York Post reported.
Let’s rewind to the start of this fiscal fiasco: the CFB’s initial rejection of Adams’ bid for funds came with sharp accusations of stonewalling and possible legal missteps tied to his 2021 campaign for City Hall.
The board claims Adams’ team has been less than forthcoming, providing incomplete and misleading details that have stalled their ongoing probe into alleged misconduct from that earlier race.
“The board finds the campaign has provided incomplete and misleading information to the CFB,” said Board Chair Frank Schaffer, doubling down on the notion that Adams’ team is playing hide-and-seek with critical data.
With all due respect to Schaffer, if transparency is the goal, perhaps the CFB could clarify why “incomplete” feels like a scarlet letter for Adams while others sail through—smells like a selective standard in a city already skeptical of bureaucratic fairness.
Adams’ campaign, unsurprisingly, isn’t taking this lying down, insisting they’ve met all the board’s demands for information and pointing to a recent court victory where a judge ruled funds couldn’t be withheld over a dismissed federal case involving bribery and corruption charges.
“We are reviewing all legal options, including formal action to compel the release of public matching funds,” declared campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro.
Shapiro’s defiance is understandable, but one wonders if legal battles will win voter trust when approval numbers are in the gutter—sometimes, clearing the air with actions, not lawsuits, is the conservative path to credibility.
Meanwhile, Adams’ rivals are laughing all the way to the bank, with Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani securing an additional $1.6 million in fundraising and $1.68 million in matching funds, boosting his war chest to over $5 million.
GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa isn’t far behind, pulling in $1.9 million in donations and $1.91 million in matching funds, leaving him with more than $2 million ready to deploy.
Even independent candidate Jim Walden got a modest $237,000 in taxpayer money, while former Governor Andrew Cuomo, also running independently after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, sits on $1.17 million without recent fundraising—yet Adams, with $6 million raised privately and $4.27 million left to spend, can’t catch a break from the CFB.
This denial couldn’t come at a worse time for Adams, who’s already battling political fallout from that dismissed federal case and approval ratings that would make any politician wince.
While his campaign managed to raise $1.5 million after Mamdani’s surprising win in the June Democratic primary, being just $2 million shy of the $8 million fundraising threshold isn’t enough when public funds are off the table—especially against well-funded opponents pushing progressive or populist agendas that clash with traditional values.
In a city where hard-working taxpayers fund these campaigns, it’s frustrating to see Adams’ team sidelined over paperwork disputes while others cash in, yet the CFB’s concerns about legal compliance can’t be dismissed outright; the real question is whether this process is about accountability or political gamesmanship, and conservatives know which way that wind often blows.
