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Q&A
Requirements for candidates to qualify for matching funds
0:39:24
·
4 min
Council Member Restler and Paul Seamus Ryan discuss the requirements for candidates to qualify for matching funds, focusing on the legal obligations and the burden of proof on candidates.
- Candidates must agree to comply with certain terms and conditions to qualify for matching funds
- The burden is on candidates to demonstrate and establish their eligibility to receive public funds
- Candidates must obtain and furnish any information requested by the CFB relating to their campaign expenditures or contributions
- The CFB has discretion in determining whether the information provided is material to eligibility for public funds
Lincoln Restler
0:39:24
I do wanna just take a second to recognize 2 more, friends and colleagues from Brooklyn, council member Ina Vernakoff and council member Shana Hamif.
0:39:32
Just digging in a little bit more on this decision that's pending before you pending before the campaign finance board in in just over 10 days, around matching funds disbursement.
0:39:43
So under the Campaign Finance Act, to qualify for matching funds, candidates, not committees, but candidates, must agree to comply with certain terms and conditions for the provision of such funds.
0:39:56
Is that right?
Paul Seamus Ryan
0:39:57
Yes.
0:39:57
And they have to establish their eligibility.
0:40:00
The burden is on candidates to demonstrate and establish prove their eligibility to receive public funds.
0:40:05
Yeah.
0:40:05
That's correct.
Lincoln Restler
0:40:07
One of those requirements is that candidates must, quote, obtain and furnish to the CFB any information it may request relating to their campaign expenditures or contributions, and furnish such documentation and other proof of compliance.
0:40:21
That's section 3703 Part D, although you knew that already.
0:40:26
Could you explain how the CFP determines whether a candidate is in compliance with that provision?
Paul Seamus Ryan
0:40:33
Essentially, the same answer that I gave you moments ago to the your question about the new rule or the amendment to the new rule.
0:40:38
The rule that you asked me about is implementing this specific provision of the act that you've now quoted from.
0:40:40
Same standards apply.
0:40:41
The board, since its inception in the late eighties, has exercised some discretion in order to determine whether or not the material the information, material documents they've requested and perhaps have not received, whether it's actually, material to eligibility.
0:41:01
And the board over the decades has, presumably, although this is my 1st public funding payment cycle that's about to begin, presumably has, determined at some instances in the past that it was lacking sufficient information to establish a particular campaign's eligibility for payment on the payment date itself.
0:41:20
Another another thing that I wanna underscore here is December 16th is the first of, I believe, 8 payment dates between now and the June primary.
0:41:28
The board will be making decisions in in many instances with respect to the same candidates, payment date after payment date after payment date.
0:41:35
And the way the process works is it is routine for the board to determine that a campaign has not established its eligibility for a public funds payment on that date or has only established its eligibility for a payment a partial payment on that date, and then the campaigns routinely work with us, our audit team, our candidate services team, to provide us missing information in order to, have the contributions that we have not yet matched matched on a future payment date.
0:42:03
So this is a provisional law.
0:42:05
We can ask.
0:42:05
We have the legal authority to ask campaigns for whatever information we need to make those determinations.
0:42:10
We've used that power for decades.
0:42:12
The board has used some discretion, and the discretion, I think, boils down to, is this information or document important?
0:42:16
Is it material to the eligibility for public funds?
0:42:16
So I I document important?
0:42:18
Is it material to the eligibility for public funds?
0:42:21
So I I do wanna better understand how we define what is material.
0:42:25
So does the board look at whether the candidate has responded to requests for information in past elections?
0:42:31
The board looks at all relevant information, specifically with respect to contributions, for example, public funding eligibility, which is happens most routinely on a contribution by contribution basis.
0:42:44
There's certain requirements that have to be met simply to go over the bar of becoming eligible for public funds and then it gets to a granular level of, is this specific contribution matchable?
0:42:54
The board does have a threshold.
0:42:56
It's right now, it's an internal process, but if we are missing information about specific contributions, that that information is necessary to determine the matchability, the legality of matching that contribution, if that threshold exceeds 20%, for example, under current agency practice, that campaign gets no public funds at all.
0:43:17
That's that's sort of an anomaly, indicator.
0:43:20
If there are are that many problematic contributions, that many questions for which the campaign has not yet given us the information we need, no public funds on that payment date.
0:43:30
But it's a case by case basis.
0:43:32
As you will see on 16th, either the chair or I, I'm not sure which, will be reading the names of all the candidates who are receiving public funds.
0:43:40
It would probably be the chair.
0:43:41
I think the practice has varied in past, election cycles.
0:43:45
But, you know, case by case, candidate by candidate, contribution by contribution is how these determinations are made, including but not limited to the specific provision of the act that you've quoted requiring campaigns to give us documents and information that we requested.