City Councilmember Alan Gerson has released a statement responding to the Campaign Finance Board's decision to deny him public matching funds:
The CFB's decision will not affect my stategy for winning. We are continuing to pursue the necessary corrective actions. In the meantime we have the resources necessary to pursue this race. This campaign is as resilient as my downtown constituents.
More from Downtown Express:
To make up for not receiving matching funds, Gerson
loaned himself $7,500 on Aug. 1. In addition, he took out a loan of
$45,000 from JPMorgan Chase on Dec. 31 of last year. Gerson has to pay
back both loans with either matching funds or legally raised campaign
contributions by next Tuesday. If he does not, then the loans will
count as campaign contributions, and they would far exceed the limit
that any single donor can give a campaign. The
Campaign Finance Board has not determined what the penalty would be for
such an exceedence, but based on past guidelines, Gerson would likely
owe a fine of about $18,000, in addition to having to repay his bank
loan. Even with the $52,500 Gerson has
received in loans, his campaign is still about $2,600 in debt, which he
also has to repay. Including the loans, Gerson had raised nearly
$133,000 as of Sept. 4 and had spent $135,500. For Gerson to execute
his strategy in the last few days of the campaign, presumably he’d
either have to borrow more, exposing himself to higher potential fines,
or raise more money from contributors.
Some say Margaret is losing Chinatown votes..rapidly.