As the June primary grows closer and closer, tensions are heating up in the race to be New York City’s next mayor. In recent days, the rhetoric between Eric Adams and Andrew Yang has escalated to the point where both candidates are openly calling for the other to be investigated for campaign-finance violations.
A recent New York Times article analyzed Adams’s past fundraising, connections to donors, and use of a nonprofit. The paper reported that David Schwartz, a real-estate developer, held a fundraiser for the Brooklyn borough president in 2018. When Schwartz’s company, Slate Property Group, needed approval to build a tower in the borough’s downtown that exceeded the zoning limit, Adams supported the zoning change.
Adams pushed back on the report while speaking to reporters Monday.
“We have been scrutinized and results keep coming up the same: Eric complied with all rules. I believe it’s unfortunate, as an African American candidate, I am held to a different standard,” Adams said, as reported by NY1.
Andrew Yang then raised the topic during an event Tuesday, calling out Adams directly.
“New York, Eric Adams took your taxpayer dollars and used them to amplify special interests here in New York City that did not need it,” Yang said, as reported by the New York Post.
Yang later added, “And I’m asking on behalf of all New Yorkers for the CFB to investigate thoroughly just how much special-interest money Eric bundled in violation of campaign-finance laws.”
The Post reports that Yang’s campaign officially filed a complaint to the board earlier in the week.
Adams’s campaign responded by submitting its own complaint to the campaign finance board, naming several Yang-connected entities: Yang for New York, Inc., Friends of Andrew Yang, Humanity Forward Foundation, Inc., and Humanity Forward PAC.
“Based on publicly available campaign-finance disclosure filings, there are significant irregularities in the fundraising and expenditures of these various affiliated entities that suggest a scheme to evade the contribution and spending limitations of the New York City Campaign Finance Act,” the letter reads.
Evan Thies, a spokesperson for Adams’s campaign, added, “If anyone deserves to be investigated, it’s Andrew Yang.”
