Long-shot NYC mayoral candidate Michael Blake sues to get onto final debate stage
By Peter Senzamici and Craig McCarthy
Mayoral long-shot candidate Michael Blake is suing the city’s powerful campaign finance agency in a last-ditch bid to be allowed onto the Democratic primary debate stage later this week.
Blake — arguably the breakout star of last week’s first debate — claims the Campaign Finance Board nixed hundreds of valid donations that would have made him eligible for the forum hosted by Spectrum on Thursday night.
“The CFB has acted arbitrarily, capriciously, illegally, and unconstitutionally in doing so,” claims Blake’s Manhattan Supreme Court suit.
Michael Blake speaking at a NYC mayoral primary debate.
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Michael Blake is suing after he said he was “illegally” booted from the second debate.
Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock
The CFB’s “antiquated” database wrongly rejected nearly 200 donations to Blake’s campaign, including one by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, according to the lawsuit, filed Sunday.
The contributions would have made Blake eligible for the city’s generous eight-to-one public matching funds program, a threshold for entry into the second and final debate, the suit states.
The former Bronx Assemblyman, during last Wednesday’s NBC 4 New York-Politico debate, referenced the fact that he’d been barred from participating in the next forum when asked about his biggest political regret.
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“The campaign finance board did not want to meet with us, they said go to court and that’s what we are doing,” Blake, an associate pastor at a South Bronx church and former Obama White House aide, told The Post on Monday.
“It is the CFB who made the error and they still have time to fix it. All we are asking for is we deserve to be on the stage Thursday night, we deserve to get matching funds.”
The Blake donors were “arbitrarily” disqualified due to address verification issues, including Williams — himself a candidate currently participating in the CFB matching funds program, the suit alleges.
Four Democratic mayoral candidates at a debate.
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Blake, considered a “breakout” star at last week’s debate, says the Campaign Finance Board messed up, and he has actually met the threshold to be on stage at the second and final mayoral debate.
AP
Williams’ $250 donation was rejected in the audit “solely because his apartment was not included,” a field not required by the Campaign Finance Law, the suit claims.
“This audit arbitrarily preliminarily disqualified numerous contributions,” the suit reads, adding that the “vast majority of such failures are due to the inflexibility of CFB’s database fields.”
“The sole reason given by the CFB in denying Michael Blake participation is their conclusory and inaccurate contention that the Blake Campaign did not meet their eligibility threshold based upon matchable dollars raised to date,” the suit claims.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams speaking at a press conference.
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Public Advocate Jumaane Williams’s $250 donation to Blake was nixed by the CFB because it claimed he entered “a non-residental address.”
Stephen Yang
Michael Blake leaving the NYC Democratic Mayoral Debate.
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“It’s surreal,” Blake told The Post on Monday. “The egregiousness of these errors and the ramifications.
Christopher Sadowski
Blake, who is polling at 1.5%, is asking for a judge to force the CFB to include him in the debate.
The board is required to host primary debates for citywide office elections, under the Campaign Finance Act, but is given broad discretion over who will be on the dais.
Candidates either need to raise and spend nearly $2.4 million or pull in more than $250,000 in public matching funds to participate in the second debate.
The threshold for the first debate was lower, with only $200,000 needed to be raised and spent to get on stage.When Blake sent in his May 19 contribution disclosure, the board at first seemed primed to give out matching funds, even asking for updated bank information.
A man in a suit and overcoat stands on a snowy sidewalk.
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Michael Blake was a former Obama aide and Bronx Assemblyman.
James Messerschmidt
But the CFB later sent the “audit letter” claiming he was 78 donors short and included two conflicting contribution dollar totals, according to the suit.
The suit also says the CFB was using an arbitrary deadline for when the contribution threshold could be met.
“They are just making up a rule,” Blake said. “It’s surreal. The egregiousness of these errors and the ramifications.”
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