Mayor Eric Adams was denied millions in public matching funds in the latest obstacle for his uphill re-election bid as an independent – after his team celebrated a legal decision they thought would help fill his campaign coffers.
The Campaign Finance Board refused to provide $3.4 million during Tuesday’s meeting, saying the campaign still had yet to provide documents and information to the oversight agency as it continues a probe into alleged misconduct during his first campaign four years ago.
“The board investigation is ongoing,” said board chair Frederick Schaffer, adding the cache of documents remaining “outstanding.”
“Mayor Adams’ campaign has failed to qualify for matching funds,” he continued.
The denial by the board comes just days after a federal judge ruled that the indictment — which spells out a slew of illegal fundraising allegations but has been formally killed — could not be used as a reason to deny the funds.
Adams’ camp was denied the funds in December last year, with the five-member panel citing delinquent requests for documents from the campaign and a “reason to believe” that wrongdoing had occurred during Adams’ run for City Hall in 2021.
Schaffer addressed the late Friday ruling from the judge, noting the order determined that the board could deny funding based on the lack of cooperation with the board in its investigation and Adams’ failure to fill out a conflict of interest form.
Insiders in Hizzoner’s campaign celebrated the ruling, telling The Post Friday they were up to date with their paperwork and expected the funds to be unlocked this week.
The ruling could prove — at least eventually — to be a boost for the mayor, who is running as an independent in the general election, where he will try to topple the current frontrunner and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
Adams will face an uphill battle, though, with three others — ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa and prominent attorney Zohran Mamdani — looking to beat the upstart socialist.
All four are expected to cut into each other’s votes and have jockeyed to get one another to drop from the ballot — but none are believed to answer the call to coalesce behind a single candidate to stave off a Mamdani majority
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