Third District race: Campaign finance tallies due only in last days of contest

Candidates in the Feb. 13 special election in New York's 3rd Congressional District must disclose their campaign fundraising hauls only in the last days of a race that is expected to attract tens of millions of dollars in donations, according to a Federal Election Commission schedule released Tuesday.

Candidates must file disclosure reports by Feb. 1 for the Feb. 13 election. The reports will cover fundraising from Oct. 1 through Jan. 24, and the candidates will not have to file year-end 2023 fundraising totals, a requirement for other House races, the FEC said.

Democrats have chosen former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) as their candidate, while Republicans have not yet announced their pick.

With Republicans holding only a slim majority in the House of Representatives, the special election is expected to draw national attention and money. Experts predict some $30 million will be spent on the race, with the Democratic and Republican congressional campaign-fundraising arms expected to play major roles in raising money.

Experts said the compressed period to campaign along with the single reporting deadline give voters little time to scrutinize candidates and their fundraising. Gov. Kathy Hochul called the special election after Rep. George Santos (R-Nassau/Queens) was expelled from Congress on Dec. 1.

The candidates' fundraising is expected to draw heavy scrutiny given the federal criminal charges lodged against Santos.

Prosecutors have accused him of ripping off political donors and submitting materially false reports to the FEC on behalf his campaign by inflating fundraising numbers for the purpose of misleading the FEC, a national party committee and the public. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but is in plea negotiations with prosecutors.

Richard Briffault, a Columbia University Law School professor who specializes in campaign finance law, cited “competing pressures” in setting the special election and campaign finance deadlines.

“One is making sure the district doesn't lose representation,” Briffault told Newsday. “The other is to give voters time to assess the candidates and give the candidates time to campaign. That gets truncated in a special election. It's hard to have both.” 

Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in campaign finance and ethics law, said it may be tough for voters to get a sense of how the campaigns spend their money in the final days of the race.

In many instances, the campaigns spend millions of dollars on commercials so their pitch is fresh in voters' minds at the polls.

“People will be able to see who contributed money to both candidates, but they may not get very much information at all about how the money was spent before the election is held,” Kappel told Newsday.

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.