With help from Amira McKee
There’s a showdown looming that could have broad implications for how taxpayer money is doled out to candidates for city office.
On one side: Mayor Eric Adams, whose campaign is armed with a recent court decision it believes will unlock millions of dollars in public matching funds for his general election bid.
On the other: the New York City Campaign Finance Board, the local arbiter of money in city elections. The board has repeatedly denied Adams a cash infusion on account of paperwork snafus and allegations of a straw donor scheme outlined in a since-tossed federal bribery indictment.
At 10 a.m. this morning, the board will convene at 100 Church St. to dole out the latest round of matching funds, which are essential to running a serious citywide campaign (unless a candidate were to hypothetically have something like, oh I don’t know, tens of millions of dollars in outside spending backing their bid.)
The campaign of mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani expects around $1.7 million in matching funds. Adams sees no obstacles to finally receiving millions of dollars of his own.
“There isn’t anything anywhere that should prevent the CFB from releasing the funds that it has withheld, so that Mayor Adams can campaign fully and robustly bringing his message of success for working families to the voters of NYC,” Frank Carone, the mayor’s campaign chair and attorney, said in a statement.
Bolstering Carone’s optimism is the result of a lawsuit he filed against the CFB in the hopes of shaking the money loose.
In a July 11 ruling, United States District Judge Nicholas Garaufis upheld the board’s right to deny Adams funds based on faulty paperwork. So Carone technically lost. But the judge also said the board’s reliance on the federal bribery indictment — despite the odd circumstances surrounding its dismissal — cut against the mayor’s presumption of innocence.
With that in mind, Carone said the team filed all the required paperwork except items covered by a court protective order related to the defunct federal bribery case. He added the campaign has asked the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to lift that order.
The issue, however, is far from closed.
The CFB declined to comment on this morning’s meeting. But for starters, it won the lawsuit filed by Adams campaign. In other words, despite the judge’s warning about relying on Adams’ bribery indictment, campaign regulators have not been enjoined in any way from meting out punishment as they see fit.
Additionally, the board has proven to be a thorough auditor that tracks campaign spending down to the penny. And as the saga of Adams’ matching funds has dragged on, the CFB has expanded its investigation into potential impropriety.
All that means the board maintains wide latitude to decide Adams’ financial future, though its final decision and any subsequent legal action could set new precedents on its reach. — Joe Anuta
HAPPY WEDNESDAY: Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman.
WHERE’S KATHY? In Albany making a public safety announcement.
WHERE’S ERIC? Schedule unavailable as of 10 p.m. Tuesday.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “You don’t survive this without faith.” — Mayor Eric Adams on his tumultuous term as he was endorsed by faith leaders.
LESSONS LEARNED FOR 2026: The primary cycle “sweep” by Working Families Party-endorsed mayoral candidates across the state should serve as a teachable moment for the Democratic Party ahead of the midterms, some of those victors told Playbook.
The third party has been celebrating Mamdani’s stunning win in New York City. But it also scored big victories with Dorcey Applyrs of Albany, Sharon Owens of Syracuse, Sean Ryan of Buffalo and Miles Burnett of Binghamton, all running as progressive champions who bucked the establishment. Those candidates succeeded by getting back to the basics of direct outreach to working-class voters and broadening the voter base, they said.
“The Republican Party has done a great job of understanding the importance of the ground game and building that pipeline that the Democrats don’t understand and don’t get,” Applyrs told Playbook at a weekend WFP gathering in Brooklyn. “All of us up there today talk about, ‘we were not the party pick,’ and so WFP understands the mission that was required to ensure that we reengage the everyday American people.”
Owens, who like Applyrs is the heavy favorite to win in November, said the WFP’s gains were the culmination of years of organizing, President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and an anti-establishment mood nationally.
“Usually, anything that is transformational takes multiple things to make it happen,” Owens told Playbook. “And so it is Trump, it is 20 years of work done by the WFP and it is this moment as well.”
The 12-point win by Mamdani, a Queens state lawmaker, over Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, was the capstone of the cycle for the left-leaning party once close to extinction. Mamdani’s win was powered by surges in votes among young and immigrant New Yorkers, who were door-knocked by his volunteers representing not just the WFP but also the Democratic Socialists of America and other groups.
“Our leverage was never going to be money. Our leverage was going to be keeping our side together, offering a way for different actors in politics to engage,” New York Working Families Party co-director Ana María Archila told Playbook. “And I think the same approach has to be what we do next year. If we, if Democrats, if our side just runs campaigns as we always do with drowning voters in advertisements and not listening to them and not talking to them, we’re not actually harnessing the lessons from this cycle.” — Emily Ngo
‘I STAND HERE WITH YOU’: As Mamdani’s rivals label him the “defund the police” candidate, the Democratic mayoral nominee is working overtime to prove he can lead the nation’s largest police force — and Tish James is eager to help.
Mamdani and the state attorney general delivered successive remarks at the National Night Out event in Brooklyn’s 78th Precinct Tuesday evening. The gathering was the progressive assemblyman’s latest stop in a campaign to suture his delicate relationship with the more than 30,000 cops he hopes to lead.
James, who endorsed Mamdani after championing City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams for most of the primary campaign, energetically introduced the Democratic nominee after leading a moment of silence for the NYPD officer slain in a mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan last week.
“I thank the officers that are here because I learned in the lesson from Detective Didarul Islam’s life the sacrifice and the service that so many officers extend to this city each and every day,” Mamdani said in his address to the small crowd gathered at Grand Army Plaza.
Cuomo and Adams have each positioned themselves as the race’s public safety candidate, taking aim at Mamdani’s past “defund the police” rhetoric as evidence of his vitriol for the NYPD.
Meanwhile, Mamdani has distanced himself from his previous rhetoric, telling reporters at the Brooklyn event that his mayoral campaign has never advocated for cutting police funding. Still, Mamdani is steadfast in his calls for change in the department, including dissolving the controversial Strategic Response Group and reassigning some police duties, like responding to mental health crises, to a new Department of Community Safety.
“If we want our officers to be able to respond to the serious crimes that they joined the department to address then we must stop asking them to respond to nearly every single failure of the social safety net,” Mamdani said. “We must stop making it impossible for them to do their jobs by asking them to do every other job we can think of.” — Amira McKee
More from the city:
— Columbia and Brown universities will disclose admissions and race data in a deal with the Trump administration. (New York Times)
— City Council Democrats will let the mayor’s Bally’s casino veto stand but plan to fight over unlicensed vending. (Daily News)
— Shootings and the number of gun violence victims have plunged to all-time lows so far this year. (New York Post)
REDISTRICTING REDUX: New York Democrats are weighing how to overhaul the state’s redistricting process without upsetting voters.
A proposed amendment that would allow mid-decade redistricting if other states are engaged in similar efforts will be one of the changes Democratic lawmakers will seek in the coming months.
“There are going to be extensive conversations in the months ahead about the best approach,” Assemblymember Micah Lasher told Playbook.
One of the first places Democrats will start is with the independent commission in charge of drawing legislative maps. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday said she supported scrapping the commission, a reform approved in 2014 with the blessing of good-government groups.
Lasher, who proposed the initial amendment last month as GOP-led Texas tries to redraw its House map to more strongly favor Republicans, acknowledges Democrats have a delicate needle to thread. They want lasting and effective changes to bolster the party’s chances of holding crucial House seats. Voters, though, will have the final say over any constitutional changes and likely reject any redistricting amendments that are too aggressive.
“We will have to grapple with the relationship between making a more aggressive proposal and the likelihood of success on the ballot,” Lasher said. “There’s some tension there. If we’re assured of passage, there would be a lot of people in favor of a maximalist approach, myself included. But we aren’t assured of passage.”
Democrats remember voters rejecting a 2021 amendment, which would have weakened the independence of the redistricting process. Conservative Party Chair Gerard Kassar, whose group was instrumental in sinking the amendment four years ago, is gearing up for another fight.
“Voters are going to have plenty of information available to them through me and my political colleagues,” he said. “We’re going to be in court, we’re going to be screaming left and right.” — Nick Reisman
AG CHANGES: State Attorney General Letitia James’ office is getting new leadership.
Chief of Staff Anna Brower is departing to become president of the Hopewell Fund, a public charity. Brower has been with James for more than a decade and was also her top aide in the public advocate’s office.
Michael O’Regan will succeed Brower in the attorney general’s office as chief of staff. He’s taking the role as James prepares to run for a third term next year. O’Regan previously worked as an Obama campaign field organizer and as a lead organizer for the Greater New York Hospital Association.
The leadership changes come as the attorney general is central to blue state-led efforts against Trump administration policies, suing to block environmental changes and cuts to social services. James is reportedly under federal investigation stemming from a property she owns in Virginia. The attorney general has denied any wrongdoing and her lawyer alleges she’s being politically targeted by Trump. — Nick Reisman
More from Albany:
— Anti-vaccine advocates want the federal government to yank funding from states that do not have religious exemptions for vaccinations. (POLITICO Pro)
— Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will have the ability to send unclaimed funds directly to New Yorkers, but he won’t aggressively use the power. (NYS Focus)
— Assemblymember Billy Jones is taking a job at Clinton Community College. (WCAX)
AI REGULATION BALANCE: Rep. Joe Morelle seeks a balance between protecting consumers and bolstering innovation in government regulation of artificial intelligence, a responsibility he said Tuesday the White House and Congress should share.
The Rochester-area Democrat discussed the government’s role in the new terrain with AI startup founders in Manhattan.
“The balance needs to be how do we protect the public’s interest?” Morelle said at the event co-hosted by Tech:NYC, M13 and Engine. “At the same time, how do you make sure that entrepreneurs and innovators have enough runway to be able to do what they do best, which is to build new products, build new services and make use of extraordinary technology?”
Morelle added that he believes the Trump administration should work with Congress, who in turn should work with industry players.
“We have to consult with people, because I don’t think most members of Congress are steeped in AI technology development well enough to make those judgments,” he said.
The House member has sought to pass legislation cracking down on misuse of AI, including in deepfake pornography and political advertising. — Emily Ngo
More from Congress:
— Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) says Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries need to end the redistricting chaos. (The Hill)
— New Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino toured a state-of-the-art Nassau County police training center. (New York Post)
— Trump couldn’t get a deal with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — increasing the odds of a government shutdown. (POLITICO)
— New York City opened its first homeless shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people. (Gothamist)
— The state corrections officers’ union says drug and chemical exposures are surging in prisons. (Spectrum News)
— Another New Jersey earthquake rattled the metro area. (Newsday)
Edited by Daniel Lippman
SPOTTED: At a book party hosted by Stu Loeser & Co. Strategy — founded by former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s longtime aide — at their Manhattan offices to celebrate Michael Grynbaum’s “Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America” ($26.99): Carolyn Ryan, Sam Dolnick, Emma Fitzsimmons, Ed Lee, Erica Orden, Matt Flegenheimer, Sally Goldenberg, Simone Swink, Marcia Kramer, David Seifman, Molly Ball, Becca Rutkoff, Chrissy Persico, Corey Chambliss, Jen Block, Kamran Mumtaz, Grace Smoker, Dora Pekac, Geoff Burgan, Michael O’Regan, Jeannie Kedas, Allison Jaffin, Grace Rauh, Rich Lamb, Angela Sun, Robert George, Irena Brigante, Kevin Dugan, Josh Margolin, Jo Craven McGinty, Phil Walzak, Jordan Barowitz, Dani Simons, Max Young, Amy Spitalnick, Megan Stackhouse, Miles Miller, Brian Adam Jones and Laura Nahmias.
MAKING MOVES: Richard Kessler has been named provost and EVP of academic affairs of The New School. He most recently was executive dean of its College of Performing Arts and dean of Mannes College since 2011. … Carolina Gartenberg is now head of global marketing and comms at Kobre & Kim. She most recently was SVP and general manager for Miami at 5W Public Relations.
… Christopher Smith is now senior advisor to the commissioner of the community affairs unit in the office of the mayor. He most recently was chief of staff for a New York State Assembly member. … Jonathan Ells is now executive director of fleet services at the NYC Fire Department. He most recently was senior project manager for Eastern Research Group.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein … Becca Kelly Slaughter … Newsmax’s Krysia Lenzo and Pat Reap … Julie Bykowicz … David Maraniss … Axios’ Neil Irwin … Michael R. Glennon … Cherie Gillan … (WAS TUESDAY): Robert Rosenkranz … Sonja Kohn … Gavriel Rosenfeld … Michael E. Snow
Missed Tuesday’s New York Playbook PM? We forgive you. Read it here.
