Photo: Alex Kent/Getty Images
Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to fight the pending federal corruption case against him with his eyes on seeking reelection next year. But his recent fundraising efforts, for both his mayoral campaign and his legal defense, have emphasized the challenge he faces.
On September 26, the day that prosecutors unsealed their five-count indictment against him, Adams received a single $250 campaign donation, according to recent filings from the city’s Campaign Finance Board. Incredibly, that contribution is the only money the mayor has taken in for his reelection campaign since he was charged. Overall, from July to October, the Adams campaign reported taking in approximately $146,000, leaving it with a little more than $3 million on hand.
By comparison, the mayor’s primary challengers had a more successful haul over the past few months. Comptroller Brad Lander’s campaign reported a little over $315,000, while State Senator Zellnor Myrie raised around $137,000. Former comptroller Scott Stringer, a former 2021 challenger of Adams, reported taking in just over $180,000. State Senator Jessica Ramos, who just joined the race last month, received about $52,000 in donations.
Asked about Lander’s higher fundraising numbers on Tuesday, Adams said his campaign’s numbers “speak for themselves” and that he wasn’t focused on his primary rivals. “We spend too much time worrying about what our opponents are doing and not asking, ‘What are we doing?’,” he said. “And so what Brad does and whomever else is in the race, let him do it. It’s about ‘What am I doing?’ And I’m going to do what I always do: work hard for New Yorkers and produce the best product for them. And the results will speak for itself.”
The Eric Adams legal defense trust, meanwhile, has taken in a little more than $1.8 million while spending $1.7 million of that sum, the New York Daily News reports. The fund was first established last November following the reveal of a federal probe into Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign and foreign influence, an inquiry that would lead to the mayor facing charges of wire fraud and bribery. The legal trust boasts several prominent donors, including James Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks, and former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff.
However, per required filings, the fund raised just $92,500 over the past three months, a far from stellar figure. And, as with his reelection campaign, Adams received a grand total of one donation for his legal defense between his indictment and September 30, the filing deadline. It came from a resident of Miami Beach, Florida, who contributed $1,000 on September 26, the day the charges against Adams were made public.
Adams’s legal troubles could potentially affect his ability to access public matching funds. In their indictment, prosecutors allege that then-candidate Adams solicited illegal straw donations from foreign contributors, which allowed him to qualify for more than $10 million in matching funds from the city. City Councilmember Lincoln Restler has called for the city Campaign Finance Board to bar Adams’s 2025 campaign from accessing that money even if it qualifies to receive it. “The Mayor’s indictment shows a complete disregard for our campaign finance laws,” Restler wrote on social media.
There is a precedent for the board taking such action. In 2013, the CFB voted to deny former comptroller John Liu from receiving public matching funds for his mayoral campaign after two associates were convicted in an illegal fundraising scheme. Liu himself was never implicated in any wrongdoing.
After news of Adams’s indictment broke, Frederick Schaffer, chair of the CFB, issued a statement. “While the mayor is presumed innocent until proven guilty and deserves due process, the Board will nonetheless review all relevant information, including but not limited to the indictment, in order to uphold our city’s campaign finance rules and protect taxpayer dollars,” he wrote.
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