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Following the Money in the City Council race, Part 2
With the election two weeks away (early voting opens Saturday), to follow is an update on some campaign expenditures for the candidates for City Council since I last published on June 2.
City Council candidate Elizabeth Lewinsohn is still in the lead for funds raised — by about $40K; she has raised nearly $310,000 (and spent almost all of it). Councilman Christopher Marte is holding steady at a bit more than $270,000 in his coffer; Jess Coleman has more than $254,000; Eric Yu has a total of $56,6100.
But now the PAC named People for Public Space has given funding to both Jess Coleman’s campaign ($44,000) and now $56,000 to OPPOSE Chris Marte’s campaign ($30,000). See those reports here. The PAC is exclusively funded by Mark Gorton, the founder of OpenPlans.
Lewinsohn is the only one of the four candidates NOT participating in the city’s matching funds program, which means she has no spending threshold. There is also no limit in what a candidate can donate to herself, and in this case, she has contributed $168,150 to her own campaign to date.
The spending threshold for City Council candidates participating in the matching program is $228,000 for the primary election and $228,000 for the general election. (The funds can roll over.)
There are limits on contributions and that applies to all candidates, whether they participate in the city’s matching program or not. For City Council participants in the match program, the contribution limit is $1,050; for non-participants it is $1,600.
And the matching program gives candidates an 8-to-1 match up to $175. In other words, for the first $175 from an individual contributor, the city will pitch in $1,400.
All candidates are prohibited from accepting contributions from corporations, LLCs, and partnerships. Candidates are prohibited from accepting contributions from political committees not registered with the CFB for the current election cycle. You can view the list of registered political committees for the 2025 election cycle (which also covers the 2023 City Council election cycle) here.
Reminder: the primary is Tuesday, June 24. The Early Voting Period is Saturday, June 14, to Sunday, June 22. See the hours for all here. And find your polling site here.
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Very odd that the People for Public Space has donated to Marte since I believe it is listed as paying for the negative Marte mailers I’ve received.
People for Public Space, which – ironically – lobbies for privatization of public space, did indeed spend money on the Marte Campaign — but on an opposition campaign.
Look closely at the Campaign Finance Board link provided and it shows the PAC spent $30,707 to “oppose”.
Yes, all those negative mailers against Marte were coming from People for Public Space.
Fun Fact:
The total funding of $320,000 to People for Public Space for this campaign was supplied by Mark Gorton.
Gorton, a multimillionaire hedgefunder, is an anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist who contributed millions to RFK’s failed presidential campaign and even served as its campaign manager.
This guy supports Coleman, not Marte.
What does that tell you?
Helpful explanation, thanks. I’m not a Marte supporter but it’s unfortunate this financial disclosure data requires additional steps to identify when money is spent *against* a candidate.
Thanks Chris for the information. The number of attack/negative
mailers is staggering! We never noticed them in years past. Is this a Trump era thing?
My understanding is that Mark Gorton has been the prime contributor/political-policy advocate for the related bike lobby/advocacy entitles – Transportation Alternatives, Open Plans, Streetsblog, StreetsPAC….
Also Sara Lind, co-director of Open Plans is noted as affiliated with People for Public Space.
I don’t quite understand how it works to have the same people be involved in multiple groups/non-profits with different names but which have the same focus?
Am i the only who thinks crime and disorder is the #1 issue? Not a single candidate to my knowledge has prioritized this. Tribeca is supposed to be a pleasant place to live peacefully.
Sean- Thanks for letting us know who Mark Gordon is and what he believes in!
All the negative ads are really unfortunate – especially during the current political climate.
The negative mailers are very troubling. I made sure I could identify the funder, then do my research. Not good.