Capital New York

Dan Jacoby commented on How the 2013 Democrats have spent, and how much room they have left

This all assumes that the candidates will accept public matching funds. There is good reason to believe that they will not. A 2011 Supreme Court ruling (preceded a year earlier by a similar 2nd Circuit Court ruling) states that "bonus" matching funds that go to candidates who are opposed by high-spending nonparticipants are unconstitutional. In other words, while in 2009 Bill Thompson got extra matching funds and a higher spending limit (no limit at all, actually) because he was running against Michael Bloomberg, that couldn't happen again. The key is $16.3 million. If a candidate for mayor can raise that much, there is no point in taking matching funds; that is the spending limit that goes with those matching funds ($300k in out years, $6.4m for the primary, $3.2m for a runoff, and $6.4m for the general election). Anyone who believes that Quinn, Liu and de Blasio (at least) cannot raise that kind of money is living in a fantasy world. And anyone who believes that any of them will limit spending voluntarily is just as out of touch with reality.

Posted on January 16th, 2013 4:58pm