After hitting fundraising target — and following indictment — Adams stops raising money

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams, typically a prodigious fundraiser, brought in just one donation of $250 in the 2½ weeks since his federal indictment .

Adams raised $212,416 during the last three months, which POLITICO first reported — making it his slowest fundraising period since he took office and began planning for his 2025 reelection, according to a filing with the New York City Campaign Finance Board Tuesday.

Adams said he slowed down fundraising when his campaign hit its target, with enough money to reach the spending limit for the primary election.

“Many of your articles highlighted money that others raised,” Adams said to reporters at this weekly media availability Tuesday afternoon. “But you know, we were at the max. And so we will pivot and shift. We had just a small amount to raise."

Adams’ lack of post-indictment campaign support stands in contrast to former President Donald Trump, whose team said it raised more than $15 million in the two weeks after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him.

Trump has aggressively solicited donations based on his legal woes, while the New York mayor doesn’t even have a campaign website. His team doesn’t send out standard emails or texts requesting money, and lacks an easily accessible online fundraising portal.

Instead, the campaign for the embattled mayor hosts fundraising events, such as a Saturday lunch his brother Bernard hosted at a Chinese restaurant in Queens, or a birthday party for the mayor at a Manhattan club.

Adams had also been soliciting money for his legal defense fund, and its quarterly report is due Tuesday.

Compliance attorney Vito Pitta declined to share that fundraising total ahead of time, but a person familiar with the operation said donations also slowed after Adams was criminally charged and those managing the fund temporarily stopped soliciting.

Adams’ electoral campaign brought in a relatively small amount since July. But the person familiar with his fundraising operation, who was granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions, said that was by design, and that the mayor stopped fundraising after making a final push to hit his roughly $7 million spending limit for the primary — as long as he gets public matching funds.

“Mayor Adams’ strong support from New Yorkers continues — and the campaign has now raised the maximum amount it can spend in the primary with anticipated matching funds for his reelection far ahead of schedule,” Pitta said in a statement.

Adams reported raising $4.14 million for his reelection campaign, and still has $3.11 million on hand. That’s a massive lead over all of his declared challengers . City Comptroller Brad Lander, the best-funded Democrat taking on Adams, has raised $967,381 and former Comptroller Scott Stringer has brought in $591,116 for their respective bids.

The Campaign Finance Board has yet to determine whether it will grant Adams the $4.35 million in public matching funds his campaign says it has qualified for. Federal prosecutors charged Adams with running an illegal straw donor scheme, something board officials said they would consider ahead of the first scheduled payout in December.

Even if he is granted matching funds, the board has already flagged one-third of the claims as “invalid,” THE CITY reported.

Adams’ filing showed his campaign refunded nearly $83,000 in donations this period, a higher rate than usual.

Even without matching funds, Adams would still have more than $3 million on hand to run, but his lead would be erased if Lander or Stringer are granted public funds. Lander expects as much as $3.49 million in December and Stringer says he’s qualified for $2.47 million.

Lander’s campaign is eager for that scenario.

“With Brad’s strong fundraising and major questions swirling around Eric Adams’ ability to qualify for matching funds due to his federal indictment, Brad Lander has raised the most money — and has the most to spend — of any candidate for mayor,” Lander senior adviser Rebecca Rodriguez said in a statement.

The city board provides $8 for every $1 raised — up to $250 — from New York City donors in one of the country’s most generous campaign finance programs.

Adams’ filing also revealed that he appears to have cut ties with Brianna Suggs, his former campaign fundraiser whose home federal investigators raided last fall.

Adams has not reported making any payments to Suggs since April — even though the mayor said in July she was still working on the campaign as a “chief administrator.”

Adams’ largest expense was a $67,500 charge to Tulchin Research in July, for polling. The results of that poll have not been made public, but recent public opinion surveys have shown Adams in dire straits. Marist found in October, for example, that just one in four New Yorkers approve of his job performance.

Adams’ single post-indictment donation came from Mike Koba, a Flushing man who lists his occupation as unemployed — even though Koba posted a photo with the mayor to his LinkedIn, which indicates he’s the owner of insurance brokerage Koba Capital. Koba gave $1,000 in total to Adams over the period, but the campaign returned $500 of it.

Adams also reported contributions from high profile donors, like Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan, who gave $2,100 on July 26. That was the day after Billy Joel’s last show at the Garden, which Adams attended to give the Piano Man a ceremonial key to the city.

Two other Dolan family members also gave the maximum allowable $2,100 earlier in July, in addition to four who previously maxed out to Adams, per his last filing in July.

Former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff, a business partner of Dolan’s, also maxed out to Adams. Broadway producer James Nederlander and his wife each gave $2,100, as did Shira Lichtenstein, the wife of real estate billionaire David Lichtenstein .

Mathew Wambua, who was Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg and now works in real estate financing, maxed out to Adams as well.

However most of Adams’ contributions were $250 or less, from people from a cross section of occupations: a dispatcher at a limo service, or a manager at a Latin American restaurant, for instance.

Adams has prided himself on raising money from communities that are often overlooked by politicians. The mayor relied more than usual on those small donors this period, with his average donation amounting to $314 — far below his average $982 contribution for the campaign.