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BUFFALO, N.Y. — The 2024 election cycle was the first time that New York state Legislature candidates were able to obtain and utilize matching public campaign funds.
Blair Horner, senior policy director for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which advocated for the program, says so far it appears to have gone well.
"The money went out the door. The candidates got the money. Some challengers were able to use it effectively to mount serious challenges against incumbents," he said.
But Horner said post-election reviews of the program are just as important. He said state lawmakers will look at what went right or wrong and potentially consider changes to the law.
Meanwhile, the Public Campaign Finance Board has begun its audit process of individual candidates.
"One of the ways that you hold people accountable and it happens when we file our taxes is we know that the possibility exists that someone will be reviewing what we’ve submitted," Horner said.
Last month, the board conducted an automated lottery and selected 95 candidates at random from roughly one-third of the state Senate and Assembly districts where at least one candidate participated in the program.
"That’s a way to sort of deal with not having a universal auditing program," Horner said.
The board has a year and a half from the election to finish the audits and a spokesperson for the state board of elections says the reviews will cover everything, including normal campaign disclosures.
"It’s much more of a Wild West system on the non-public financing side where, essentially, as long as you know what you’re doing, anything goes. So it’s, I think, different standards and I’m sure that the state Board of Elections is going to look much more closely and appropriately on the use of public dollars," Horner said.
Auditors will be making sure candidates adhered to limits, only spent public funds on qualified expenditures and made repayments if necessary. Horner said they may, for instance, be looking for individuals who used straw donor to circumvent contribution limits.
"Which is where someone is making a campaign contribution but using the name of someone else and that’s illegal and yet it’s a way to raise lots of contributions," he said.
Candidates could be required to return money and potentially be subject to civil and criminal penalties depending on the results of the individual audits.
