By Hank Russell
Nassau County Executive and GOP candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman ripped into the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB) after the agency announced plans to hire outside counsel to defend themselves against Blakeman’s lawsuit. Blakeman said this means that the state residents will be on the hook for any legal bills.
Blakeman, who was forced to sue the board to stop Hochul’s weaponization of the matching funds system, slammed the board’s attempt to mandate that Republican members be represented by the same counsel as the Democratic majority — a move he calls a blatant conflict of interest.
As previously reported in Long Island Life & Politics, on March 31, the PCFB voted 4-3 along party lines to remove candidates from the program, citing the campaigns’ failure to submit a form that has yet to be created. Last month, after the PCFB denied Blakeman approximately $7 million in matching funds, Blakeman filed a lawsuit against the board.
In an effort to help Blakeman’s campaign to New York State Assembly Minority Leader Ed Ra (R-Franklin Square) and Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt (R,C,IP-Lockport) recently unveiled legislation which they said would correct a bureaucratic error made by the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board (PCFB) that retroactively denied six candidates, including Blakeman, entry into the matching funds program after the board had previously approved their participation. This was previously reported by Long Island Life & Politics. The bill, if enacted, would give the denied candidates a seven-day window to refile for the matching funds program.
“I was forced to sue to stop Kathy Hochul’s dirty politics, but instead of correcting course, her handpicked hacks are doubling down by operating as a taxpayer-funded hit squad for the Governor’s mansion,” Blakeman said, accusing the board of “orchestrating a Soviet-style legal sham that mocks the very concept of due process.”
These puppets aren’t serving the public; they are doing the governor’s dirty work while forcing New York families to foot the bill for their own disenfranchisement,” Blakeman continued. “It is a disgusting abuse of power to strip the opposition of independent counsel just to protect the Hochul political machine.”
But a Hochul spokesperson told Channel 2 News that neither Hochul nor the state Democratic Party was responsible for denying Blakeman’s application and insisted the board is “bipartisan” and “makes its own determinations.”
“The onus is on each campaign to ensure they meet its requirements,” the spokesperson told LILP. “‘100% MAGA’ Bruce Blakeman doesn’t need any help from us to run an incompetent, losing campaign — and by embracing Trump’s illegal tariffs and enabling ICE’s overreach, he’s ensuring New Yorkers will send him packing this November.”
While Blakeman attempts to obtain public funds and raise money from donors, Hochul already has $20 million on hand without receiving any public funding, according to New York Focus. Despite raising a sizable sum, her campaign has not revealed the names and organizations that have donated or held fundraisers for her, despite numerous Freedom of Information Law requests from the Focus and other media outlets.