“I wouldn’t have run if it weren’t for matching funds,” she told THE CITY. Queens Councilmember Julie Won, who defeated the aforementioned crowd in District 26, said the matching-funds program made it possible for her to run as a first-time candidate. The new campaign finance laws, which were adopted in 2018, reduced contribution limits to candidates, and increased both the matching funds available to candidates and the total amount of matching funds candidates could receive.Ī majority of the money doled out - 66% in the primary and 85.2% in the general election - went to first-time candidates, the CFB’s report, which will be out Wednesday, found. “The fact that we had this matching funds that allows people to have sufficient money, to get their message out, to really speak to the voters – really couneracts that independent spending,” Amy Loprest, the board’s outgoing executive director, told THE CITY in an interview. More candidates, as well as changes to some campaign finance laws, helped candidates access more money than ever before, according to the CFB. The CFB gave out a total of $126,917,515 in public matching funds in 2021 - compared to just over $17 million in 2017, and $38 million in 2013, the last time there were open races for mayor and other citywide offices.
The New York City Campaign Finance Board, which tracks political spending, took a year-long look at the 2021 cycle and found that participation in its matching-funds program jumped 10% since the last citywide election in 2017, when comparing primary candidates. Last year’s local contests also included ranked-choice voting for the first time, allowing voters to cast ballots for more than one candidate. The June Democratic primary for Council District 26 in Queens alone featured 15 candidates, the most of any of the races. The 2021 primary election was the biggest in the city’s history in terms of the sheer number of candidates, with a crowded field vying for mayor, as well as hotly contested races for comptroller and four out of five borough presidents.Īdd to that a long list of candidates running for City Council, as term limits and other circumstances left 36 of the body’s 51 seats open. First-time candidates got a major boost from New York’s revved up matching-funds program during the 2021 election season, as the city doled out a record $127 million to participants, a large majority of which went to electoral novices, according to an analysis shared with THE CITY.
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