Blakeman gains access to matching funds program after appeals court win

ALBANY —  The state Public Campaign Finance Board accepted Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman into the state's matching fund program Thursday after a mid-level appellate court ruled that the board had erred in denying Blakeman access.

In its unanimous decision, the five-judge panel for the Third Department’s Appellate Division wrote that the board failed to follow its own rules when it excluded Blakeman and his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood.

The decision came one day after attorneys for Blakeman and the state board appeared before the panel.

Blakeman, the Republican candidate challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul, said he was "very gratified and very happy" with the decision. It means Blakeman can access up to $3.5 million in public funds that could prove crucial because Hochul is nearly $20 million ahead in fundraising, according to the latest available records.

A key element in the matter is a new state law, enacted last year, that ended separate primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, putting the two on one ticket.

Under the law, Blakeman and his running mate should have filed a "joint certification" application to the Public Campaign Finance Board.

The court noted that the rule requiring governor and lieutenant governor candidates to jointly file for the program went into effect after Blakeman had registered for the program. It also never created a form for that joint filing.

Penalizing both Hood and Blakeman, who would have sole control of the campaign committee, when there was no joint form or educational materials on how candidates should file jointly failed the basic objectives of the program, the court wrote.

Blakeman registered in mid-December, nearly a month before the rule went into effect. He did not choose Hood as a running mate until February.

Days before, staff working for the state board noted there was no form for candidates to file jointly and they decided to merge the certifications internally.

Blakeman later refiled paperwork for the program after changing his treasurer. That form also did not have Hood’s name on it.

The deadline to certify for the program was Feb. 23, with a one-week period where campaigns could fix problems with their filings.

"Thus, at that point, Blakeman's previous filings were rendered incomplete," the court wrote. "However, contrary to its own regulations, PCFB failed to notify petitioners that their filings were incomplete."

"The PCFB tried to play a hidden ball trick to exclude Blakeman and Hood from being able to participate in the program," Blakeman’s attorney Adam Fusco said in a statement. "Instead of fostering participation in the electoral process, the PCFB resorted to partisan politics."

Blakeman sued the board in April after it voted 4-3 along party lines to remove his campaign from the program.

In her May 14 decision, acting State Supreme Court Justice Denise A. Hartman ordered the state board to give Blakeman’s campaign one week to fix any problems with its program certification, but the board appealed that decision. The appellate court on Thursday said it saw no error in that aspect of the ruling.

Hochul is not participating in the matching funds program.