[BwayDems] Disapointed, But Full Steam Ahead!

[Paula Diamond Roman]

Disapointed, But Full Steam Ahead!
 
NEW YORK, NY– Comptroller
John Liu, Democratic candidate for Mayor,stated the following in response to questions
about the Campaign Finance
Board's decision to deny public matching funds to thousands of donors to the Campaign:
 
"I am disappointed in the CFB's decision to not only deny my
campaignbut to deny thousands of New Yorkers of their
ability to leverage their own
dollars.  I am still proud of the fact that my campaign has had the highest proportion of small donors than
any other mayoral campaign.
 We also have the distinct honor of being the very first political campaign to which many have ever made
a donation in their life.  So
I do feel bad that their contributions are not deemed as worthy as any other fellow New York City resident's contribution. We have a very diverse group of donors who
come from all over the City, from
all walks of Life. Yes, some of them may have job titles that you may think doesn't give them the wherewithal to
be able to contribute to a
political campaign.  But they did and are now engaged politically because of it.
 
"The CFB has chosen to make certain characterizations of my
campaign-- they are absolutely wrong in their
characterization and we will utterly
dispute and repudiate those kinds of comments.
 
"For the last couple of years, I have taken body blow after body
blow,but there is no knock-out here. We are going
full steam ahead! Although we may
not have the millions of dollars that the CFB has chosen to withhold from our campaign and from
our donors, the strength of this
campaign has never been just in the money -- it's always been in the people.  And we're going to draw
upon that strength over the next
five weeks throughout all five boroughs.
 
"After an exhaustive investigation into me and my campaign, afterwiretapping my
phones for 18 months, after interrogating thousands of my supporters and reviewing millions of
documents relating to their donations
to my campaign -- New Yorkers can be assured that I am now the most thoroughly investigated candidate in
the history of New York!"
 
The Campaign has received funds from 6,339 contributors; 6,259 of whomare individuals
(as opposed to labor organizations or PACs) and of which 4,799 contributors are New York City residents and were eligible to have their contributions matched.
 The average contribution is $535.
The Campaign has the largest percentage of small donors among all the candidates for Mayor, an overwhelming
number of whom are immigrant and/or
first-time donors to any campaign.
 
The Campaign has always and continues to return donations immediatelyupon gaining
any information that they are illegitimate.  The Campaign does not accept donations from people doing
business with the City or from people
seeking to do business with the Comptroller’s Office. The Campaign has actively either rejected or
refunded over $200,000 worth of
contributions, including those relating to the Pan/Hou trial, the Thacher Report interviews, and from people doing
or seeking to do business with the
City.  Both the Pan/Hou trial (which concluded in May) and the Thacher Report interviews provided
the Campaign with information about
illegitimate donations that the Campaign previously did not and could not have known; the Campaign
subsequently refunded those
donations, a total 35 contributions totaling $28,000.
 
The Campaign has raised $3,505,476 to-date. The Campaign currently has$1,328,667 in
cash on-hand.  The Campaign had submitted all documentation to support the application for the
maximum amount of public matching
funds allowed under the law of $3,534,300.  Despite the CFB's wholesale denial of public matching
funds to the Campaign, the Campaign
is still certified with the CFB and therefore bound by the spending limit of $6,426,000.
 
"We will continue to reach voters and talk about the issues, thechanges I will make for this City, to level the
playing field for all New
Yorkers under the sacred promise: that if you come here, work hard, dream big, and then you work a little bit
harder, you can achieve great
success and have the opportunity to make good.  This was always the promise of New York, and we'll fight to restore
it."
 
###
For Immediate Release
August 5,
2013
Contact: John Liu for Mayor, 646-490-9818
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