For generations, deep-pocketed donors have called the shots in New York State politics, leaving ordinary voters with less power and less of a voice in their government. Incumbent lawmakers are bankrolled by moneyed special interests and are routinely re-elected with little competition, and there has been no real alternative to the traditional system of big campaign contributions influencing candidates and politics. One recent study by the Brennan Center for Justice showed that just 200 people contributed $15.9 million to candidates in New York state elections last year, outspending the 206,000 people who donated $13.5 million in amounts of $250 or less.
A law passed in 2019, one of the most promising New York campaign reforms in decades, was supposed to change that: it created a public financing system that encourages small-dollar contributions to political candidates and promotes competition for legislative seats that are often viewed as sinecures for incumbents. This new system was intended to give voters a wider choice of candidates, improving the democratic process by giving voters a better chance of electing people to state office who represent their interests and raising the mediocre quality of governance in New York. But this week, in the final days of the legislative session, the Democratic lawmakers who dominate the capital are preparing to severely weaken those reforms.
The changes proposed by lawmakers would protect incumbents and discourage challengers — the opposite of the program’s goal. Suddenly a program that would have encouraged small donations would no longer do anything of the sort; in fact, it would supplement donations as large as $18,000 with matching funds from taxpayers, a complete turnabout from the original intent of the system promised to voters by reformers elected in 2018 and a perversion of the promise of most other public financing programs, including New York City’s. Lawmakers are likely to vote on the bill on Friday; if it passes, as expected, Gov. Kathy Hochul should veto it and preserve a system aimed at empowering ordinary New Yorkers.
The 2024 elections will be the first under this new campaign finance system, in which state leaders agreed to match small contributions with public funds to amplify the power of small donors. The law works like this: If an individual gives $5 to $250 to a candidate for a statewide office like governor, that donation is matched with public funds six to one. A $100 donation would thus provide $700 to the candidate ($100 plus $600 in matching funds). The match ratios are even higher for state legislative candidates.
But if a donor gives more than $250, then no part of the contribution is matched. That was the key element of the agreement reached in 2019. Lawmakers said they would provide an incentive for candidates to hunt for small contributions and to discourage big ones.
All of that would be undone by the bill that emerged late Tuesday. Leaders in both chambers decided to match the first $250 of all contributions up to the maximum level. So if a company executive seeking a state contract makes a $10,000 contribution to a state senator, that contribution would still receive a $2,300 public match. Matching a contribution of that size is a waste of public money and provides little incentive to pursue small donors. If the bill is enacted, candidates will continue to vacuum money from the biggest contributors but will be rewarded for doing so with additional funds provided by taxpayers.
That’s not the only abuse in this bill, which would also make it more difficult to qualify for the matching program, particularly for newcomers. Under the current program, Assembly candidates have to raise $6,000 from 75 residents of their district before they can get a match — a requirement designed to filter frivolous campaigns from the system. The new bill would increase that threshold to $10,000 from 145 residents, a difficult barrier even for serious political novices to overcome.
And that, of course, is why lawmakers are making this change. They don’t want competition.
“They don’t want to be primaried,’’ said John Kaehny, the executive director of Reinvent Albany, a leading reform group that supported the current public match system. “They know the public match will mean they will get more primary opponents, and so they’re making it harder to run. It wrecks the core idea of the program, which is to make these races more competitive.”
As with so many important decisions in Albany, this change is being made at the last minute, a few days before the end of the legislative session, with almost no public debate or explanation. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Democrat of the Bronx, did not respond to a request to explain the changes. State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Democrat of Brooklyn, who sponsored the bill in his chamber, issued a statement saying the system would still combat the influence of big money and would become more like New York City’s public match system, which does match some contributions of more than $250. The city’s system, however, has far lower maximum contribution levels for candidates who participate in it.
The Brennan Center study showed that the state’s existing public financing system — if the Legislature can be persuaded not to tamper with it — would magnify the power of small donors in legislative races. That’s exactly what the state needs to encourage new candidates and new thinking. If New York’s lawmakers are unwilling to defend their records in open political competition, Governor Hochul will need to be a backstop for New Yorkers and veto this bill.
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