Half of the claims for public matching funds that Mayor Adams’ reelection campaign submitted in the most recent reporting period were deemed “invalid” by the city’s Campaign Finance Board, the highest rejection rate the mayor’s team has faced to date, records obtained by the Daily News show.
The rejections come at a critical time for Adams’ campaign. The CFB is weighing whether to give Adams’ 2025 campaign any matching funds at all amid his federal indictment on charges alleging he took illegal political donations and bribes, mostly from Turkish government operatives.
A decision by the board to withhold public funds from Adams, who has pleaded not guilty, could deal a serious blow, with millions of dollars at stake as he faces seven challengers in June’s Democratic mayoral primary.
The board — which is set to announce Monday whether to award Adams matching funds — has said it’s considering the allegations in his indictment as part of its final decision, on top of various other factors required under CFB rules, like claim denial rates.
The new records obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request show Adams’ 2025 campaign submitted a total of 268 donations for matching funds in the latest reporting period, which spanned from July 12 through Oct. 7.
Of them, 134 — 50% of all claims the campaign submitted in the period — were found by the CFB to be “invalid,” the records show. The reasons for the rejections included contributions in question not being “timely reported,” no “backup documentation” being provided by Adams’ campaign and donors being listed in the city’s Doing Business database.
Under the matching funds program, mayoral campaigns get eligible contributions from city residents matched by the CFB at an 8-to-1 rate up to $250. The Adams campaign’s 134 “invalid” claims total $31,051, meaning they could be worth a combined $248,408 if matched with public funds.
The 50% denial rate is the highest Adams has seen in a reporting period since he started raising cash for his reelection run shortly after taking office in 2022. The second highest was the 25% of matching claims denied in the first period of the 2025 cycle, which ran between Jan. 15, 2022, and July 11, 2022, records show.
In a Nov. 12 letter to Sharon Adams, the mayor’s campaign treasurer, CFB Auditing Director Danielle Willemin wrote the Adams team has until Jan. 15 to respond to the latest findings if they believe some of the claims are valid.
However, Willemin noted in the letter that Adams’ team would need to respond by Nov. 22 if it hoped to cure the claims in time for them to be included in next week’s public funds payout, the first of the 2025 cycle. The records obtained by The News show the campaign didn’t file any response by Nov. 22.
Vito Pitta, Adams’ campaign attorney, didn’t respond to questions about the CFB findings this week.
Besides the latest reporting window, Adams still has 458 “invalid” claims from the five previous 2025 cycle reporting periods that haven’t been cured by his campaign to date, the records show. Those outstanding claims are worth $108,433, giving them a total matched value of $876,464, the records say.
Some matching fund claim denials are common, said Marty Connor, a former state senator and veteran New York campaign finance compliance lawyer. However, Connor said Adams’ 50% denial rate stands out. “That’s high comparatively,” Connor said, adding rates exceeding roughly 20% are outside the norm.
The 50% denial rate came in a period in which Adams’ reelection campaign received $146,151 in donations, the lowest fundraising stretch he has had since becoming mayor.
Amid the cash dip, Adams’ team said it had essentially ceased fundraising for his reelection, arguing he had hit the campaign spending cap if expected matching funds are factored in. The drop also came as Adams was focusing on raising money for his legal defense fund, which he’s using to cover attorney fees he’s racking up to defend himself in his corruption case prosecuted by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.
The CFB has dinged Adams’ political operation for alleged bookkeeping errors before, including compiling a draft audit earlier this year identifying $2.3 million in improperly documented spending by his 2021 campaign.
In total, Adams’ 2025 campaign has submitted 1,747 matching claims deemed valid on initial inspection by the CFB, totaling $404,142, records show. With matching funds, those donations are worth a cumulative $3.2 million if CFB ultimately opts to give Adams public cash.
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