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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. As usual on Wednesdays, our lead Eric Adams reporter, Elizabeth Kim, joins us with excerpts from an analysis of the mayor's weekly news conference. The only time all week when reporters can ask questions on topics of their choosing. The news conference was on Monday this week. Hi, Liz. Happy Wednesday.

Elizabeth Kim: Happy Wednesday, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: One of the leading stories this week is the mayor being denied matching funds for his reelection campaign by the city's Campaign Finance Board. We'll hear his reaction to that in a clip in a minute. Can you remind the listeners what that matching fund program is? It's supposed to keep very wealthy candidates, like Michael Bloomberg was, from overwhelming their opponents with their own spending. Right?

Elizabeth Kim: Sure. Exactly that, Brian. The CFB administers a very generous matching funds program. It tries to encourage smaller donations essentially by matching them. A candidate who raises at least $250,000, and has at least 1,000 donors, is eligible to get $8 for every dollar donated by a city resident. That's up to $250. It's a lot of numbers. That's to give you a sense that there's a criteria here. All of this is about encouraging a grassroots campaign. Smaller donors who live in the city.

Brian Lehrer: Such a generous match.

Elizabeth Kim: Exactly. It's the most generous program in the country. We should never stop emphasizing it's taxpayer-funded, which is why the CFB's role in vetting the donations is so important.

Brian Lehrer: The CFP, the Campaign Finance Board. Why did they deny the mayor matching funds, at least as of now, for this coming election?

Elizabeth Kim: Well, as we know, Brian, the mayor's fundraising has been the focus of a federal investigation, a state investigation. As I said, the CFP's job is to examine the campaign filings of all the candidates. They're combing through documents and they're making sure that everything checks out because this is taxpayer money. Over the summer, my colleague Bridget Bergen was the first to report on the CFB's audit of the mayor's 2021 campaign. That report was 900 pages long, and auditors found over $2 million in undocumented donations.

That means money that didn't have the supporting paperwork that they need to see. They also found financial discrepancies and illegal donations, including some coming from straw donors. What the CFB did this time around was they said, the mayor is denied funds for this particular round. They're not preventing him from trying to qualify in future rounds.

Brian Lehrer: Here's the mayor's reaction to being denied those matching funds, for now, by the Campaign Finance Board, the CFB. This starts with a provocative follow-up question to the facts you've been laying out by one of your colleagues in the City Hall Press corps.

City Hall Press: Do you plan to accept contributions over the public matching funds limit now that you've been denied funds for that plan?

Mayor Eric Adams: The most important part of what CFB stated is that, "At this time." We're going to work with Vito Pitta, who's my long-term attorney in compliance. We're going to work with CFB to answer any questions they have. As I stated, if I read correctly, I didn't have time to read it completely, that it is not unusual at this time for people to be denied, as those other sevens were, denied funds. We're going to continue. No matter what happens, we're going to overcome whatever hurdle to get our message out. That is what I'm going to continue to say. When you do an analysis at the numbers, our resources are more than everyone else that's running.

Brian Lehrer: A couple of questions on that, Liz. First of all, the mayor mentioned that seven other candidates were denied public matching funds. Who are those other candidates? Some of them. Maybe there's some prominent names in there. Do we know why any of them were denied?

Elizabeth Kim: Sure. It's not for anything-- It's not comparable to the reason why the mayor was denied. Most of the candidates were denied because they simply didn't meet the qualifications. It's that threshold I talked about, the $250,000 from at least 1,000 donors. One person, Scott Stringer, did meet the threshold and he was awarded money. Another candidate, City Controller Brad Lander, also did reach the threshold. The reason he was denied was because his campaign failed to file required paperwork by last month's deadline.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. I was wondering, Liz, I don't know if you have anything on this. It's just speculation on my part. Whether the mayor even wants to qualify for the matching funds program-- He mentioned in that clip that he's got more money than anybody else running as it is. As you know, if he does qualify for the matching funds program, anybody who does, is then required to participate in televised debates. I'm thinking with all those other people you mentioned, two of them, Stringer and Lander running to the left of him, maybe he'd rather let them get on stage, on TV, and take shots at each other rather than all take shots at him and he'd be better off sitting out the whole Campaign Finance Board system this year.

Elizabeth Kim: I don't know, Brian, because this program is so generous, $8 to $1, it was a devastating blow for the mayor to be denied millions of dollars. I think that he is telling the truth when he says he's going to try to qualify in the next rounds. I don't know that a candidate can turn down that kind of money. He has raised the most of any of the candidates, but if he is denied those matching funds, the other candidates who are currently raising and currently trying to qualify, it's conceivable that they can then catch up to a candidate that isn't part of this program. Money is still very important in these elections. The mayor does have the advantage, though, of being the incumbent. He can use his platform as mayor to basically campaign.

Brian Lehrer: Next topic from the mayor's news conference. He was asked about the increase in deaths and injuries during police chases during his tenure as mayor and especially this year. The news organization The City reported that in the first 11 months of this year, an unprecedented 398 vehicle crashes were preceded by police pursuits resulting in at least 315 people injured. That's one a day. The report says is up 47% from the number of people injured over the same period last year. Let's hear the mayor's response to being asked about that.

Mayor Eric Adams: Yes, and my term as mayor, we made a complete shift to stop letting dangerous, bad, people think they can commit an act, shoot someone, commit a violent crime, and just flee. We have used a great deal of caution, a great deal of training. We have the supervisor that's on the ground, making the determination to call off a chase or not. Let's be clear. We have far too many people who are extremely dangerous that have become comfortable that if they flee the police, it has become a culture.

Brian Lehrer: The mayor at this week's news conference, our lead Eric Adams reporter, Liz Kim, with us as she is every Wednesday after these news conferences. Liz, I had the injury number there. 315 people so far, according to the news organization The City. There have also been deaths. The reporter asked about 13 deaths resulting from police chase crashes during Adam's' time in office. Does he say more people would have been killed or injured if they had not gone after those bad guys? Is there a risk-benefit analysis like that they try to quantify?

Elizabeth Kim: That certainly seems to be what he's suggesting to the public. Although, the rule, and I got this from that very excellent story by The City, is that police can do a vehicle pursuit only if they feel that it doesn't pose a danger to both themselves and the public. If you look at the statistics that The City has gathered, this is a very sharp spike. Up 47%. They called it an unparalleled number of police car pursuits. It really makes you question whether police are adhering to their own rules on what qualifies as a moment when they should pursue someone by car.

Brian Lehrer: Liz, this is probably the last of these segments that we'll do this year. The next two Wednesdays are Christmas and New Year's. What's it been like for you as a journalist to be on the mayor beat this year? It's a certain challenge to be in the room asking questions at these weekly news conferences. I did it a few times as a street reporter before starting the studio show. It's a certain vibe in that press room. He takes a question from you pretty much every week. What's that like?

Elizabeth Kim: The first word, to be honest, Brian, is it's exhausting. The mayor is an exhausting personality to cover. There's lots of drama, too. There's lots of moments where we are on the edge of our seats and he's very unpredictable, too. To watch the arc of this mayor has been both fascinating and there's just so much to cover and so much to ask him about. It's all of those things I would say. It's very demanding, but it can be very thrilling, too.

Brian Lehrer: Do you think he's going to be pardoned, for any crimes potentially committed, by President Trump?

Elizabeth Kim: Well, after President Trump this week, at his first post-election press conference, he said-- I should say President-Elect Trump. He was asked whether he would pardon the mayor and he said he would consider it. That was the first time that we heard him say something with so much clarity, "I am going to consider this." I think the chances of that really rose for the mayor this week.

Brian Lehrer: Liz Kim, thanks for all your work this year. We'll keep doing these Wednesday appearances after the mayor's weekly Tuesday news conference. Liz, thanks for everything in 2024.

Elizabeth Kim: Same to you, Brian. Thank you.

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