Mayor Eric Adams’ re-election campaign severely lags behind his competitors in the latest fundraising haul, as his base appears to be dwindling months before the primary.
The incumbent raised $36,121.34 between Jan. 12 and March 13 — but had to give back more than $21,000 to donors who’d already maxed out on giving or had other donation issues, according to city Campaign Finance Board filings released on Tuesday.
Some of the returns — like to crypto investor and former child actor Brock Pierce — were for donations made in previous filing periods, when he gave more than is legally allowed.
Meanwhile, over that two-month period, Adams’ campaign spent 10 times as much as it brought in: $157,530, including a $10,000-a-month consulting fee to Brianna Suggs, a fundraiser whose home was raided in November 2023 by federal investigators. They also paid $67,000 to a company to handle canvassing and petitioning — which is how the mayor will get on the ballot for June’s primary.
The mayor’s filings were made public Tuesday afternoon after his campaign team hadn’t submitted its paperwork as of a Monday evening deadline. The fundraising records of all other major candidates in the race were made public on time.
Many of those candidates, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, raked in tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, and qualified for public matching funds that will give them even more money to spend.
Adams has so far not qualified for taxpayer-funded matching funds due to non-compliance and other issues, and could potentially have to pay back $10 million he received for his 2021 campaign.
His campaign lawyer, Vito Pitta, did not respond to a text message seeking comment.
Asked Tuesday about his fundraising numbers, Adams told THE CITY “it’s all part of the process.”
His latest campaign haul adds little to the more than $4.8 million he’s already raised for his re-election through the years, although donations have slowed since he was federally indicted last fall.
Those charges are on track to potentially be dropped in a controversial move by the Trump Department of Justice, although federal judge Dale Ho has not yet made a formal decision on the future of the five-count indictment.
In spite of campaign challenges — including some previous supporters defecting to get behind Cuomo — Adams has remained stubbornly optimistic about his re-election, telling reporters Monday he would start campaigning soon.
“I’m not running against [other] candidates. I’m running against myself,” he said. “And there’s only going to be one person that’s gonna come through the primary.”
The 59 donors to his campaign in this latest period came mostly from within New York City, with a few living on Long Island, in Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Maryland and South Carolina.
At least one man who gave the maximum amount of $2,100 said he still believed Adams would win.
“I think that Eric has done a very, very good job and I think he’s not being treated fairly by the press,” Spencer Lader, a retired business consultant who lives in Woodbury on Long Island, told THE CITY when reached by phone.
The federal indictment against Adams seemed minor, he added. And he viewed the mayor’s race as a two-way contest between Cuomo and the current mayor — and he didn’t like the former governor.
“If I can help Eric,” Lader said, “I will.”
Additional reporting by Samantha Maldonado and Mia Hollie.
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