George McDonald has spent decades helping homeless New Yorkers reclaim their lives.
Now he wants to run for mayor.
The city’s Campaign Finance Board is welcoming him to the race in typical establishment fashion: by readying a heap of fines and violations.
His crime? McDonald decided to forgo both city contribution limits and public financing. With public financing, candidates get up to six dollars in matching funds from the city government (i.e., you the taxpayer) for each dollar they raise on their own.
McDonald has said he won’t take public dollars, so the city’s limits on contributions shouldn’t apply. The city says otherwise.
Welcome to politics in New York — where honest folks suffer from Gotham’s campaign-finance “reforms,” while professional politicians gorge on free money.
If McDonald were a billionaire, and this were his own money, he wouldn’t have any problem. He could finance his own campaign without limits, as Michael Bloomberg did in his successful runs for mayor.
But he doesn’t have that kind of cash. So he’s looked to some wealthy supporters.
New York state law allows individuals to contribute up to $19,700 for the primaries and $41,100 for the general election. McDonald’s problem is that the city’s limit is only $4,950 for the primary and general election combined, and it forbids loans from corporations.
McDonald is founder and president of The Doe Fund, a nonprofit that helps homeless New Yorkers find the work and housing that gets them off the streets and helps them become productive citizens.
That sounds like a man New Yorkers might want to have competing for their votes for mayor. But he won’t have a chance if the Campaign Finance Board has its way.
That’s why McDonald is suing.
He has a good argument. New York pols excel at turning favors into campaign contributions. Their chips are magnified in value when the city then matches those contributions with taxpayer cash.
McDonald has helped many a homeless person, and says that jobs would be his No. 1 issue. But he’s barred from using his non-profit’s mailing list as a donor base. So he wants to run his campaign the only way he believes will make him competitive, by tapping wealthy backers.
His lawsuit is especially well-timed, as Gov. Cuomo seeks to usher in a state campaign-finance system modeled on the city’s. It will cost millions and only invite Albany’s political class to further insulate itself from real competition.
This isn’t to say we back McDonald for mayor, but that we believe New Yorkers are better served with more competitive campaigns from a wider range of candidates.
That’s especially true when candidates come from outside the class of professional politicians now spending the city and state into serious debt.
Whatever happens in the race, McDonald has done New Yorkers a heap of kindness by challenging a political system that now breeds two primary types: wealthy dabblers and well-connected incumbents.