Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven Light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome and thanks for listening to get connected. As New
York City mayoral campaigns are picking up steam, we are
joined by Tim Hunter, representing the New York City Campaign
Finance Board, New York City's landmark campaign finance program, providing
public funds to candidates for city offices. We have lots
of questions for Tim about their matching funds program. Tim Hunter,
(00:32):
thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
You can find out more about everything we talk about
at NYCCFB dot info. To begin, Tim, The New York
City Campaign Finance Program is a non partisan program established
in nineteen eighty eight. Why does it exist in the
first place.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Well, in response to corruption that was seemingly rampant back
in the nineteen eighties. You know, the City Council and
the mayor worked together other to pass what we now
know is the New York City Campaign Finance Act, which
allows us to implement a matching funds program which started
as a one to one match but has now grown
since to an eight to one match, which allows local teachers,
(01:16):
small business owners, community organizers, ordinary people to be able
to run for office competitively without relying on large donors,
wealthy friends and business partners, etc. The program also does
an amazing job of holding candidates accountable by ensuring that
all contributions to candidates are fully disclosed. You can find
(01:37):
that on our website by using the follow the Money tool.
In addition to ensuring that any independent spending that occurs
ies super packs, a lot of people are also disclosing
their contributors and also what information they're sending out to voters.
You know, our goal is to lift the veil on
campaign finance, which is sometimes something that people don't want
(01:58):
to think about or people are intimidated by, and we
want to make sure everyday New Yorkers can access tools
and resources that allow them to do better research as
to who they're going to be voting for in the
upcoming elections.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So we do have the mayoral campaign, of course it's
going on, but these funds are eligible to people in
all kinds of other city offices.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yes, So what happens is we have a two part
threshold and just to go back to some of these races.
Right New Yorkers this June June twenty fourth, when we
have our upcoming primary, they're going to be voting on
not only their upcoming mayoral race, but also to other
citywide races, so comptroller and public advocate. Depending on where
you live, you might be voting for a new borough
(02:40):
president or to reelect your former borough president. And there's
also a chance that you have a competitive city council
race going on in your district to determine who your
next local lawmaker will be. So with these races, it
kind of varies what the threshold is, but candidates for
the most part, need to be a two part threshold.
One they need to raise a certain amount of matchable
(03:00):
funds and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more
about that match a little bit later, but they also
need to have a certain number of contributors that live
in district, whether it's in their city council district. If
you're running for a borough president seat, it needs to
be contributors in that borough. And if you're running for mayor,
you need to get contributions from New York City residents
to unlock that match. So we don't just give money
(03:21):
to everyone. You have to kind of demonstrate that you're
a viable candidate by meeting that two part threshold.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
This may be outside the conversation we're having here, but
to be able to get sort of organized and get
on the ballot and all those things, where do people
start with that?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
To begin with, Well, we have amazing team of candidate
services liaisons that kind of help candidates through this process. Right,
So even if you're a first time candidate or if
you don't have much experience in the political process, we
have a number of videos and trainings and you get
your own liaison that will help you through this process.
We only handle the campaign finance side of things, so
(03:55):
that's more like getting your bank accounts started, ensuring you
know what threshold you need to meet to be able
to lockmatching funds. But there's a lot of information out
there on the Board of Elections website, on the CFB
website which was already highlighted NYCCFB dot info, you can
get a lot of information on how to jumpstart your campaign.
And of course the first thing you need is to
get that community buy in, right. You want to be
(04:16):
able to have a group of support in people that
want to help you make this happen, because key can't
do it by yourself. It's too much work. You want
to make sure that you have a solid team and
a solid community that's willing to support you through this process.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
We're speaking with Tim Hunter, representing the New York City
Campaign Finance Board. He gave the website I'll give it
again NYCCFB dot info to find out more about their
matching funds program. You're listening to get connected on one
oh six point seven light FM. I'm Na del Rio
and you said in the beginning when the program began,
it was a one to one match. Again now it's
an eight to one match. So doing the math, if
(04:51):
someone made a ten dollars contribution, that could be worth
as much as ninety dollars to their campaign. Where do
the matching funds come from?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Well money, it comes from New York City taxpayers. You know,
our program is fully funded by New York City taxpayers.
We are a city agency, so we are accountable to
the taxpayers of New York and our agency is basically
made up of a team of auditors, lawyers, candidate service liaisons,
and public affairs staff, which I'm a part of. That
you know, try to message the program in a positive way,
(05:20):
so the match comes directly from you all. So it
makes sense to figure out which candidates you want to
support and which candidates you want to get your contributions
matched for, because this is your money that's going towards
this program. In twenty twenty one, we gave out over
one hundred and twenty million dollars in matching funds. This year,
you know, a lot of seats aren't open, so we
may not give out that much, but there's a number
(05:42):
of candidates that are running for mayor, a lot of
candidates that are running for these local races. So we'll
see as we get closer to November how much money
we end up giving out for the entire election cycle.
But that eight to one match that you highlighted is crucial.
Not only is it great for messaging, but it also
allows you to stretch your dollar as a contributor, and
if you are a New York City resident, it allows
(06:04):
candidates to focus on getting contributions from the community they're
running to represent instead of looking for outside donors, contributors
that live outside of New York City or outside of
their district. It kind of allows you to spend more
time focusing on connecting with constituents that you might be
representing in the future than soliciting contributions from the wealthy
(06:26):
millionaires and billionaires that want to bankroll our candidates that
are running for office. Not saying that they're bad, but
just want to say that the contribution limits and the
expenditure limits that we have prevent candidates from spending more
than they need to to run for office and allow
contributors to only give up to a certain amount, so
people can't give a million dollars to one candidate.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Well, let me ask about that, because I think people
are also wondering, you know, you hear all the time
about candidates, especially when we're talking about federal races, that
they are they're declining public funds because they have gone
over some spending limit. Does that also happen in New
York City races? Will we have major candidates do you
think decline public funds?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, so far, and a lot of the high profile
races that we have candidates that are registered with our
program for a lot of them have opted into being participants,
which means that they are eligible to receive public funds
once they meet that two part threshold that we talked
about earlier. I anticipate, of course, a small number of
candidates maybe being non participants. I think right now we
(07:27):
have like two or three candidates that are non participants
in the program. Doesn't mean that they're any lesser of candidates.
Some people just prefer to have their own private donors
giving money. When you are a non participant in our program,
it allows you to, you know, kind of increases the
contribution limit. So instead of let's say, for mayor, instead
of twenty one hundred, you're getting a little bit more.
(07:48):
It's not too much more, it's just you just have
a little bit of higher contribution limit. And you're also
not subject to the spending limit that our public matching
funds program participants are subject to.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
As I understand it, if someone is the only candidate
for particular office, they're running unopposed, they cannot receive the funds.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Correct, Yes, that is completely true. We are only giving
public funds to candidates that are in quote unquote competitive races.
We have a number of guidelines that explain what a
competitive race is, and you have to kind of like
justify why you need the public funds. If we don't
think initially that your race is as competitive as you
think it is.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And so if you receive the public funds, let's maybe
get a couple specifics. What are some guidelines on how
you can use the funds, maybe some specific examples and
some no nos.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, so some specific examples are, Yes, you can pay
your campaign staff. Yes, you can purchase literature and mailers.
The no nos are a much larger laundry lists. You know,
let's kind of like put them in two buckets. Right,
you can spend money on any campaign activity, right, activity
that is in furtherance of your campaign for public office.
(08:55):
You cannot use public funds, you know, to pay bills,
personal bills, that is, you can't use public funds to
let's say, go grocery shopping. These are things that are
not allowed. Again, we have a number of resources that
kind of outline what public funds can be used for
and can't be used for. And our CFB Handbook is
(09:17):
a laundry list of items. And for some things, there's
like a gray area where we kind of call these
qualified expenditures and not qualified expenditures. So there's qualified expenditures
or what you can use your public funds for and
not qualified expenditures means you can maybe use the private
money that you raised for, but you can't use the
(09:37):
public money you raised for. So some non qualified expenditures
include childcare. Right, we know that we want to make
running for office easier for everyday New Yorkers, and some
New Yorkers are parents and want to run to represent
their communities but are worried about childcare. So if you
raise enough of your private money, you can use some
of that money under certain guidelines to pay for childcare
(10:00):
for your children. So that's just one example of the
many examples that we have for you know, where you
can maybe use some money but not all of your
public funds for that. And that's mostly just in our
effort to make running for office easier for everyday New Yorkers.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
And if you don't win and have any money left,
or if you don't win at all, is there anything
you need to repay? And if you have funds left
after the election, whether you win or not, do you
have to repay?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yes, no matter what, we aaw that money back if
you have money left, right, so, you want to make
sure obviously you spend, but we also have spending limits,
so you can't spend more than a certain amount depending
on what race you're going for. And again, our agency
is an interest of protecting tax payer dollars. We are
in the interest of ensuring that there is public accountability,
so we won't just let people ride off into the
(10:46):
sunset with bags of cash. Obviously, we want to make
sure that if we can recoup money for everyday New Yorkers,
we are making every effort to do so.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And because this program is something that's been going on
for nearly forty years now, of course it has some
track record of success. What are a few successes attributed
to this program?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well, you know, I know we can't take full credit
for this, but in the most recent twenty twenty one
city wide election cycles, you know, New Yorkers went to
the polls. Of course, they also opened up their checkbooks
and their pocketbooks, and they gave a higher rate than ever.
You know, the one hundred and twenty million dollar number
that we gave out in twenty twenty one was the
most that we've ever given out, So I'd count that
(11:25):
as a huge success. But it also partially led to
the election of the most diverse city council New York
has ever seen. So when we allow programs like the
cfb's Matching Funds program to kind of like do an
information based campaign and ensure that New Yorkers know that
they have an opportunity outside of knocking on doors and petitioning,
(11:46):
to get involved and to stretch their dollar even further.
We've seen New Yorkers take advantage of that, and that's
something that we want to continue to see happening, especially
in this upcoming election cycle. You can turn your ten
dollars to ninety dollars. You just got to visit our website,
figure out what candidates you want to support, do your research,
and then you give. If you're eligible, you'll get your
contribution matched, and you not only be helping your candidate,
(12:09):
you'd be helping your community in your neighborhood. You know,
support a candidate that you feel like would be a
best the best pick for that role.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Just to wrap up, I think it's a really great
way you put it there at the end, because it
really does empower the voter when you support these people
who have opted into the campaign finance program totally.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
It does it allows New Yorkers not only to lift
the veil on what's happening in their district, who's bankrolling
these candidates, but also allows you know, more grassroots contributors
to have a bigger impact. You know, obviously we're not
matching the thousand dollars contribution you give, right, there are limits, right,
We only match up to the first you know, two
fifty for citywide seats and one hundred dollars for council seats.
(12:49):
But we are doing our best to ensure that candidates
are not only talking about the program, but you know,
we want them to opt in. We want more candidates
to run and be participants because it allows us to
ensure that our campaigns that are running in our city
are being powered by the people.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You can find out more about the New York City
Campaign Finance Board and their matching funds program at NYCCFB
dot info. Tim Hunter, representing the New York City Campaign
Finance Board, Thank you for being on to Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one O six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
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