Former government Andrew M. Cuomo can violate the rules for campaign financing of New York City that prohibit candidates to coordinate political strategy and expenditure with the super PACs that support them.
The issue is potentially serious for Mr Cuomo, the Democratic leader for mayor. If he is found in violation of the rules, he could be confronted with stiff fines and possibly lose millions of dollars in public matching funds.
It’s a practice about it Known as red boxingIn which candidates post strategic information in a public, if obscure, location where large money groups that support them can see it. If you do this, the two parties can deal with rules that prohibit them from communicating immediately.
Mr. Cuomo seems to have done that exactly when he launched an harmless page on his campaign website at the end of April. Although it was labeled a ‘message for voters’, the page Reads much more as detailed expenditure instructions Repair the city, a super pac Made to increase and spend enormous amounts on behalf of him or other groups.
The message of almost 600 words quotes recent poll data and contains pre -processed video clips from Mr. Cuomo that can be dropped in advertisements. It also contains four steps that will be ‘critical of success’, including an advertisement that tells Jewish voters about Mr Cuomo’s record about anti-Semitism, door-to-door request in black and Latino-neighbors and the need for ‘less traditional’ media to reach with voters between 40 and 55.
Although practice remains legal at the federal level, New York City adopted quietly rules at the end of last year that direct a direct goal on red boxing and a term that refers to the frequent use of red-colored boxes to emphasize the instructions. City rulers have warned that the practice can effectively undermine the strict limits for fundraising and expenditure by campaigns.
It was not immediately clear whether the city is the tactic of Mr. Cuomo is investigating. But the New York City Campaign Finance Board, the body responsible for enforcement, shot a warning on Monday that remind all city campaigns of the new rules, according to a copy of the Email obtained by the New York Times.
“Red-boxing is the publication of campaigns of strategic information or other data to communicate with external parties that make election-related expenses,” the board wrote. “If the CFB determines that expenditure of external parties used RedBoxed information, both the campaign and the spender would be subjected to fines.”
A spokesperson for the board refused to comment on whether the message was connected to Mr Cuomo’s campaign or repaired the city.
Representatives of Mr Cuomo and the Super Pac did not immediately comment.
Repair the city, which is run by an old Cuomo loyalist who was once his right hand, has already collected more than $ 6 million from real estate developers and other rich interests to support Mr Cuomo’s mayor’s ambitions. It hopes to collect more than double by the time the campaign is through, which means that the spending limits may be imposed on individual campaigns.
The Super PAC has already spent around $ 2.5 million on television and digital advertisements to Mr. Support Cuomo.
After the Monday -E -mail of the board, one of the opponents of Mr. Cuomo for mayor, Senator Zellnor Myriewrote to the Campaign Finance Board to formally request a study into possible coordination.
The cited letter ads By repairing the city that closely reflects the broad campaign message and information from Mr Cuomo in his red box with regard to abortion rights, the Covid Pandemie and getting up against President Trump.
“This kind of coordination practices between campaigns and external spending groups offer an illegally unfair advantage for coordinating campaigns by avoiding the expenditure limits of the program, in kind contributory limits and limitations of companies,” wrote Maya Handa, the campaign manager of Mr Myrie.
However, the mere existence of red box messages is not sufficient under the city rules to justify a fine. The Campaign Finance Board must find evidence that the Super PAC actually acted or used specific information in the Red Box.
In the case of Fix the City, each advertisement was released before Mr Cuomo placed the detailed instructions on or around 26 April – so they probably do not encourage a fine.
It is not the first time that Mr. Cuomo was examined due to possibly current rules of the city financing rules of the city. The Campaign Finance Board refused him last month millions of dollars in matching funds because the paperwork that was submitted by his campaign was incomplete.