New York’s Republican gubernatorial hopeful is preparing to possibly sue the state — accusing Gov. Kathy Hochul and her fellow Democrats of “corruption” and trying to “rig the system” by denying him millions in matching campaign funds.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who trails Hochul’s massive war chest by nearly $20 million, is reportedly poised to be disqualified from the state’s Public Campaign Finance Program for failing to meet a newly created filing requirement.
The Public Campaign Finance Board — where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority — is set to vote Tuesday on Blakeman’s fate in the program, which is at risk over what critics called “an easily correctible filing error.”
“My campaign has already been certified for matching funds, and any attempt to disqualify it now would raise serious concerns about political interference,” Blakeman told The Post.
“If such action occurs, we will pursue legal remedies, including disclosure of communications that may involve Kathy Hochul and her campaign staff.”
The board in December — the same month that Blakeman announced his run for governor — added a rule requiring all candidates on a ticket to file for the public matching funds. Blakeman’s running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, never submitted his own paperwork.
But the document Hood was required to hand in doesn’t even exist yet, as the board enacted the joint-filing rule without actually creating the form candidates were supposed to use, according to Blakeman’s campaign.
“[Hochul] is trying to rig the system,” Blakeman’s campaign spokesperson, Madison Spanodemos, claimed.
“The form they claim [Hood] needed to file doesn’t even exist, and Hochul changed the rules right after Bruce qualified — pure corruption,” she charged.
Hochul’s campaign didn’t return requests for comment.
For Blakeman, the financial stakes couldn’t be higher. If Democrats vote to give him the boot from the program this week, they would be shorting his war chest by roughly $7 million as he continues to trail Hochul both at the polls and in funds.
The Democratic incumbent is currently sitting on over $20 million while Blakeman has raised just $3.2 million.
If the vote goes against him Tuesday, his only recourse would be to sue and bring the state to court as the board has no formal appeals process.
Blakeman has retained attorney Adam Fusco to explore his options, sources told The Post.
Non-partisan good government group Reinvent Albany ripped the board on Monday for getting “poised to vote on partisan lines to deny the Republican candidate for governor public matching funds because of an easily correctible filing error.”
The harsh response to Blakeman seems to stand in stark contrast to how similar cases have been handled with Democratic candidates, according to Politico.
A Democrat challenging Republican state Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra also submitted incomplete paperwork, which was missing key information such as her address and even the office she was seeking to run for, Politico reported.
But instead of immediately tossing the application, a board staffer went out of their way to fill in the missing information on the candiate’s behalf and certified her for the program four days after the due date, the outlet detailed.
Only after being caught by Politico, did Democrats release a statement saying that there would be a vote to remove Ra’s challenger from the program, as well.
Democratic leaders, however, are downplaying any talk of dirty politics, and said Blakeman’s “incompetence” was the only reason he has found himself in this situation.
“This is yet another example of Bruce Blakeman’s ineptitude,” State and Nassau County Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said.
“He has been an incompetent county executive for Nassau County and now has demonstrated that his campaign is also incompetent.”