If New York’s Democratic primary for mayor was to be decided by whoever had the most money and energy, Zohran Mamdani would be at a cash disadvantage but with a surplus on vigor.
He began Friday by asking the city’s Campaign Finance Board to give him a waiver to exceed the almost $8 million spending cap for the primary — hoping to come closer to leveling the huge spending advantage of his chief rival, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
Fix the City, a super PAC supporting Mr. Cuomo, has raised more than $24 million, with much of it fueling an expensive attack ad campaign against Mr. Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and democratic socialist.
He later campaigned with Brad Lander, the city comptroller, in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, after riding there on electric Citi Bikes from Mr. Lander’s home in Park Slope. And then he ended the day with a planned seven-hour walk from the north tip of Manhattan in Inwood Hill Park to its southern tip at Battery Park, inviting his followers to join him “Forrest Gump” style.
His battle for more money, however, was destined for less traction.
The Campaign Finance Board quickly said Mr. Mamdani’s request to increase the spending cap was against the rules. Tim Hunter, a spokesman for the agency, said the only time the cap can be increased is when a candidate who is not participating in the matching funds program raises more money than those who are participating in the program.
That happened in the 2021 mayoral primary when Ray McGuire, one of the longest-serving Black executives on Wall Street, blew through the spending cap. The spending cap was raised from $7.3 million to $10.3 million.
“We understand the challenge posed by independent spenders to the goals of the matching funds program,” Mr. Hunter said, but the “law does not apply to spending by participating campaigns or independent spenders.”
Fix the City’s spending prowess is unprecedented in city elections. The most money spent by a single super PAC in the 2021 mayoral race was about $6.5 million by New Start NYC, which supported the unsuccessful campaign of the former Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan.
The total amount that super PACs spent on the mayoral campaign was about $32 million, according to Campaign Finance Board records. Fix the City, which was founded by close allies of Mr. Cuomo, has already spent $16 million.
Leading the donations to Fix the City is former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire who has given more than $8 million and has also endorsed Mr. Cuomo.
“He is terrified right now, which is why you’re seeing billionaires have to give another donation after they’ve already given one to his super PAC,” Mr. Mamdani said of Mr. Cuomo. “Because they’re calling him back up and they’re saying, ‘This isn’t the race that we wanted.’”
Liz Benjamin, a spokeswoman for Fix the City, said Mr. Mamdani’s letter to the Campaign Finance Board asking for the spending cap to be raised “reads like campaign performance art.”
The left has not been able to match the outside expenditures of group’s like Fix the City.
Leaders We Deserve, a group headed by David Hogg, the former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, gave $300,000 to a Working Families super PAC supporting Mr. Mamdani and a slate of anti-Cuomo candidates this month, making the group the largest contributor to a Mamdani-affiliated super PAC.
“The side of the working class never has the resources of the side of billionaires and mega-corporations,” said Joe Dinkin, deputy national director of the Working Families Party.
Two PACs, New Yorkers for Lower Costs and the Working Families Party’s national PAC, expect to reach $2 million in spending on the race, he said.
“We’ve reminded voters of Cuomo’s record of siding with the powerful few and introduced people to Zohran,” Mr. Dinkin said.
The Campaign Finance Board said on Friday that it would give out just over $5 million in new public matching funds to eight Democratic candidates for mayor, including Michael Blake, a former assemblyman from the Bronx, who received just his first public money payment of just over $2 million.
Mr. Blake said he was preparing to use the $2 million to pay for new advertisements before the close of voting at 9 p m. Tuesday. He has been at the bottom of most polls but had a breakout performance at the first mayoral debate; his lack of funds and low standing in the polls disqualified him from participating in the second debate.
“We now have an opportunity to get my message out to people,” Mr. Blake said in an interview. His goal, he said, was to focus on Black and Latino voters and give them an alternative to Mr. Cuomo.
“Cuomo has pretty much every large union except for one or two. Zohran has a massive army from the democratic socialists. You have to be able to counter that with an operation,” Mr. Blake said. “What happened today now gives us a chance to do that.”
Reporting was contributed by Tim Balk, Nicholas Fandos and Emma G. Fitzsimmons.
Jeffery C. Mays is a Times reporter covering politics with a focus on New York City Hall.
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