Two Democratic primary challengers to Mayor Eric Adams capitalized on the chaos engulfing City Hall, hauling in more than $1 million each in campaign funds — including a donation from actress Scarlett Johansson, new filings show.
City Comptroller Brad Lander raked in $1.5 million over the last three months, bringing the total in his 2025 mayoral campaign war chest to $4.5 million, according to fundraising figures released Friday — the first since stunning raids on high-level City Hall officials and Adams’ historic criminal indictment.
The haul stands above that of other Adams challengers, with the next-highest coming from Scott Stringer — Lander’s predecessor as comptroller and a 2021 mayoral also-ran — who netted $3.2 million this year, with $1.1 million in recent months.
But Stringer has something Lander lacks: the backing of “Black Widow” star Johansson, who donated $2,100 to his campaign, records provided to The Post show.
“I think it’s very clear that having raised $3.2 million in less than a year shows that people want change at City Hall,” said Stringer, who officially announced his run in mid-January.
“When I speak in living rooms asking for small dollar contributions, people ask me about public safety,” he said. “They ask me about mismanagement at City Hall. They’re very concerned about corruption. And I tell people that I’m running as the grown up in the room.”
ScarJo has long backed Stringer, who advocated on tenant issues with the star’s grandmother in the 1980s and later hired the actress’ twin brother to work in the Manhattan borough president office.
She has hosted fundraisers for Stringer, donated $2,000 to his 2021 campaign and apparently continues to support him after a sexual assault accusation — which the pol vehemently denies — tanked his last bid for mayor.
Both Lander and Stringer have used Adams’ scandals to fundraise, with Lander pushing for donations just hours after Adams appeared in court on bribery and corruption charges last month.
It remained unclear how much financial support Adams was able to maintain despite the flurry of federal probes moving to the forefront of Big Apple politics. His campaign did not provide fundraising numbers as of Friday.
The money racked up by Lander and Stringer, which include public matching funds, between the three-month filing period ending Friday still leaves them far short of Adams’ formidable war chest.
Adams had $8 million cash on-hand during the last filing, just shy of a $8.3 million spending cap for candidates who receive public matching funds.
But Adams’ criminal indictment could threaten his ability to spend those spoils.
Federal prosecutors contend Adams solicited illegal straw donations during his 2021 mayoral campaign to game the city’s matching fund program that generously multiples every donated dollar eightfold for candidates.
The accusations prompted city Campaign Finance Board Chair Frederick Schaffer to launch a review of Adams’ funds.
“While the mayor is presumed innocent until proven guilty and deserves due process, the Board will nonetheless review all relevant information, including but not limited to the indictment, in order to uphold our city’s campaign finance rules and protect taxpayer dollars,” Schaffer said after the indictment.
Another mayoral candidate, State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, raised $701,404 during the last three months, including matching funds, according to the new filing.
His campaign has raised more than $2 million since it launched five months ago.
Jessica Ramos, another state senator who recently launched a run for mayor, raised an anemic $52,512, according to her campaign. She has yet to reach the threshold to qualify for matching funds.
Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who’s poised to get the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America, won’t be making a filing, his representatives told The Post.
Two other rumored contenders — former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state Attorney General Letitia James — are said to be eyeing jumping into a potential special election that’ll be held if Adams resigns or is ousted.
They have relatively flush campaign war chests at the state level — about $890,000 on-hand for James and a massive $7.9 million on-hand for Cuomo — but experts say it could be difficult for them to work around campaign finance rules to spend that cash in a citywide race, especially in a tight time frame leading up to a special election.
— Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy
Read the full article here
