Andrew Cuomo fined $622K in NYC mayor's race for coordinating with big-money group

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo was fined $622,056 Monday for breaking campaign finance rules by improperly coordinating with a super PAC dubbed Fix the City.

The city's Campaign Finance Board announced its decision at a hearing where Cuomo, the former New York governor, was also awarded $1.5 million in matching funds. Cuomo had missed out on previous rounds of matching funds due to a series of paperwork snafus.

Earlier this month, Cuomo’s campaign grabbed headlines for an obscure page on his campaign website called “A Message for Voters.” The page featured details on campaign strategy and polling data, noting Cuomo’s focus on the issue of antisemitism and the importance of Black and Latino voters between the ages of 40 and 55. Critics said the page represented “red-boxing,” where a campaign posts information for a super PAC in a location where only the PAC would see it.

While red-boxing is legal in federal races, it’s not permitted by the Campaign Finance Board. Candidates are prohibited from directly sending messages to political action committees that can spend unlimited amounts of money to support or oppose a candidate's campaign.



https://gothamist.com/news/andrew-cuomo-fined-600k-in-nyc-mayors-race-for-coordinating-with-big-money-group