Bruce Blakeman Fails to Refund $360,000 in Illegal Donations
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Oct 7
Bruce Blakeman Fails to Refund $360,000 in Illegal Donations
1 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Oct 7
Summary
$360,000 in over-the-limit contributions remains unreturned by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, even though he avoided a primary and is capped at $9,000 per donor for the election.
At least 40 donations above that limit arrived after New York's May 13 primary-ballot certification, including repeated large checks and 22 contributions of exactly $9,369.14 tied to a processing-fee add-on on his donation page.
Blakeman's campaign blamed filing glitches and duplicate entries, but the Public Campaign Finance Board said his committee alone had the problem and called it user error, not a system failure.
If suspected duplicates are stripped out, Blakeman's reported haul drops by $292,000 and his cash position swings to a $114,000 deficit before the $360,000 in refunds owed.
The issue hands Gov. Kathy Hochul fresh ammunition in a race where she leads Blakeman 53% to 42% in a new Marist poll; her campaign has been refunding excess donations.