Campaign Finance Board member recuses from NYC Mayor Eric Adams matters after penning op-ed on his indictment

Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News on Apr 15, 2025

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NEW YORK — Richard Davis, a member of the city’s Campaign Finance Board, has recused himself from voting on any matters related to Mayor Eric Adams after penning an op-ed in February in which he blasted the Donald Trump Justice Department’s dismissal of the mayor’s corruption indictment as “ludicrous.”

Davis, a former U.S. Treasury Department official who worked on the Watergate investigation into late President Richard Nixon’s administration, revealed the recusal during a Campaign Finance Board meeting Tuesday, where the panel, among other actions, voted to continue to deny Adams’ reelection campaign public matching funds.

Davis didn’t provide an explanation at the meeting for why he recused himself. But a spokesman for the board confirmed Davis did so “out of an abundance of caution” due to an op-ed he wrote in February “in his personal capacity” about Adams.

Davis’ op-ed, published in the Daily News on Feb. 12, criticized an attempt by President Trump’s Department of Justice to drop the mayor’s federal corruption case.

At the time, the DOJ had just submitted a controversial filing claiming the historic criminal case amounted to interference in Adams’ reelection bid and prevented him from assisting Trump’s effort to target undocumented New Yorkers for “mass deportations.”

In his op-ed, Davis wrote that the claim that Adams’ indictment amounted to election interference “is in a word, ludicrous.” He also wrote in the opinion piece that Adams has “without any evidence” claimed his indictment, filed in September, was political retribution for his criticism of President Joe Biden’s handling of the migrant crisis.

Davis penned the opinion piece after participating in a vote in December in which the Campaign Finance Board first denied Adams’ reelection campaign public matching funds due to his indictment, which charged him with taking illegal political contributions and bribes, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for political favors.

Since then, the board has voted multiple more times to continue denying Adams matching funds. According to the Campaign Finance Board rep, Davis has sat out all votes on that matter since the publication of his op-ed.

A spokesman for Adams’ reelection campaign declined to comment on Davis’ recusal.

The judge in Adams’ case ultimately this month approved the dismissal of the mayor’s criminal case, writing that he had no choice but to do so, while also lamenting that the move “smacks” of a “bargain” in which the mayor is getting off scot-free in exchange for helping Trump with immigration enforcement. Adams has denied any quid pro quo.

Though the indictment is now dead, the Campaign Finance Board made clear at Tuesday’s vote that it will continue to withhold matching funds from Adams.

In a written explanation about Tuesday’s decision, the board stated it’s denying Adams matching funds because of general “noncompliance” with campaign finance rules, as well as Adams’ failure to file his annual financial disclosure form on time.

The board’s explanation doesn’t elaborate further on the reasoning for its latest denial. The mayor has vowed to pursue legal action to get matching funds.

After his indictment was killed, Adams dropped out of June’s Democratic mayoral primary and is now seeking reelection as an independent candidate in November’s general election.

In addition to Davis, Frederick Schaffer, the CFB’s chairman, also announced Tuesday he’s recusing himself from voting on any matters related to ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose mayoral campaign was just denied matching funds due to missing documentation about his donors. The CFB spokesman said Schaffer is recusing himself because he “interacted” with Cuomo and his gubernatorial staff while serving as general counsel for the City University of New York between 2000 and 2016.