Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is facing a handful of federal, state, and local investigations, but at least one of those inquiries has been resolved in the mayor’s favor. The city’s Campaign Finance Board concluded its probe into de Blasio’s nonprofit, Campaign for One New York, and found the group — which was set up in 2014 to advance the mayor’s progressive policy agenda, including universal pre-K — did not violate campaign-finance laws because its 2014 activities never overlapped with the mayor’s 2017 reelection campaign
“The Campaign for One New York was formed to advocate for New York City’s progressive policy agenda,” a mayoral spokesperson told the Times. “It never engaged in any election campaign activity for any candidate and shut down more than a year and a half before next year’s election.”
The Campaign Finance Board did say it would continue to monitor the nonprofit’s 2015 spending activities to make sure they don’t factor into the 2017 election. The activities of Campaign for One New York are still under scrutiny in different probes, including an inquiry by the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics. The panel is looking into whether the nonprofit engaged in lobbying activities but failed to register as a lobbying group in 2015. (It did so in 2014.) Lawyers for the nonprofit are now refusing to obey a recent subpoena from the panel requesting expenses and meeting agendas, saying the probe is politically motivated — and by that they’re inferring to meddling from Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose tense relationship with the New York City mayor isn’t exactly a secret. A judge will decide over the summer if the Campaign for One New York must follow the panel’s subpoena.
