Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman’s campaign finance reports appear to contain significant discrepancies, with a state filing showing just $178,000 in the bank on September 28 while a TD Bank statement put the campaign’s balance at $1.7 million.
The records also identify dozens of transactions that do not appear in Blakeman’s disclosure reports, raising further questions about the campaign’s financial reporting as he seeks public funding through New York’s matching-funds programme.
A bank statement dated July 29 shows a cheque numbered 1156 being used for a $13,500 payment to an unspecified recipient. No transaction involving that cheque number, or any payment of $13,500, appears in the campaign’s filings over the past year.
The statements also record apparent contributions missing from the disclosures. Actress Lois Robbins is shown as wiring $18,000 to the campaign on September 2, but the filings contain no $18,000 transaction within two weeks of that date and no donation from Robbins.
A further $18,000 wire from campaign finance chairman and attorney Howard Fensterman in July similarly does not correspond with an entry in the reports.
Blakeman is the first gubernatorial candidate in New York state history to take part in the new matching-funds programme, through which he can receive up to $3.5 million in public money. Former New York City mayor Eric Adams was barred from a similar city programme last year after discrepancies were found between his bank statements and campaign disclosures.
Kyle Kennedy of the good-government group Reinvent Albany said the differences could be explained by “the timing of when things were recorded”. He added that Blakeman’s campaign “will automatically be audited by the Board of Elections after the election” and that “campaign finance enforcement takes place after elections, not in real-time”.
Blakeman’s campaign did not respond to a request to explain the latest discrepancies. It has previously attributed its reporting problems to technical issues caused by the large number of donors.
Several of the campaign’s disclosures have been amended repeatedly. A July report initially listed $4.7 million in cash, before being changed a week later to $6.1 million and then revised again in August to $4.3 million.
The campaign has also received about $360,000 in donations above the legal contribution limit which it still needs to return. Some refunds have been unusual: a donor who gave $1 in July was quickly repaid $780.76.
Campaign officials said the discrepancy was caused by some contributions being entered more than once. Almost a month later, however, the filing had not been amended to show which transactions were genuine.
The campaign has additionally submitted requests for matching funds covering 2,600 donations that were not eligible for public matching, according to New York Focus.
