Operating largely under the radar, Comptroller John Liu has pulled off an amazing feat in the race for mayor by filing claims that would entitle him to $3.4 million in public matching funds.
Liu’s accomplishment is impressive on several fronts.
The $564,400 he has amassed for matching purposes is second only to the $637,038 rounded up by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who leads in the polls and has raised twice as much overall as her less successful rival.
Liu has concentrated on smaller contributions and has tapped donors outside the wealthy Manhattan core — particularly in Asian-American strongholds that include his base in Flushing, Queens — to haul in about $3.2 million. He’s got $2 million left.
“That was our whole fund-raising strategy,” confided one Liu ally.
Donations from city residents are matched on a generous six-to-one basis, up to $1,050 for every $175 contributed.
So the more small donations, the higher the match.
In fact, Liu has received only 11 checks at the maximum $4,950 level. In comparison, Quinn has 440, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has 268 and Bill Thompson has 221.
So if there’s a grass-roots contender in this race, it’s as much Liu as it is the lesser-known Sal Albanese, who emphasizes as often as possible that he’s not beholden to big-money special interests.
Under normal circumstances, Liu would be sitting pretty.
But this year’s mayoral contest is anything but normal.
Two of Liu’s associates, former treasurer Jenny Hou and contributor Oliver Pan, are scheduled to go on trial in federal court next month on charges of trying to game the campaign-finance system — the same system in which Liu hopes to cash in his pile of matching chits.
The agency that’s supposed to hand over that money is the Campaign Finance Board, which is still working to complete audits of both Liu’s and de Blasio’s 2009 campaign accounts.
CFB officials will be monitoring the trials to determine if there’s any reason they shouldn’t be handing over public funds to Liu.
Liu hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing himself.
But the CFB rules cover staffers as well as candidates.
In Chapter 5 of the CFB regulations, one reason cited for an “ineligibility determination” would be “if the participant or an agent of the participant has been found by the Board to have committed fraud in the course of the program . . .”
If Hou gets convicted, the Campaign Finance Board will be in a difficult position with regards to Liu.
As a guardian of the public funds, it’ll have to decide if there was enough evidence to trigger the ineligibility provision. At the same time, the agency doesn’t want to be accused of disenfranchising voters who are supporting one of the four major contenders in the Democratic race.
Liu insists he’s in the race to the end. But if he doesn’t collect the $3.4 million, he’ll be limping to the finish line.