State Filings Reveal a Disgusting Amount of Tax Money That Backed One NY Senate Candidate’ Mailer

A New York City candidate just pleaded guilty to laundering taxpayer matching funds into her own pocket.

Now a Long Island Democrat is tapping that same taxpayer-funded program to blanket mailboxes with his entire party's ticket.

State filings show exactly how much of the public's money landed in Josh Taveras' campaign account before Election Day.

New York's Matching-Funds Program Already Produced One Guilty Plea This Year

Angela Aquino ran for New York City Public Advocate in 2025 and tried to collect roughly one million dollars in matching funds she was not entitled to.

Prosecutors say more than $130,000 reached her personal bank account from contacts in the Philippines, and she then washed it through her campaign by withdrawing cash and redepositing it as fake contributions.

She also paid her own apartment rent out of campaign funds while reporting the payments to regulators as legitimate campaign expenses.

Aquino pleaded guilty to wire fraud on August 20, 2026, in federal court in Brooklyn, and she faces up to 20 years in prison.

That case was outright fraud, not a disputed interpretation of a spending rule, but it shows how far New York lets a publicly financed campaign go before anyone outside the campaign checks the math.

Taveras' Mailer Pushed the Whole Democrat Ticket with Public Money Behind and Still Couldn’t Win

Josh Taveras was running for the Long Island state Senate seat that Republican Alexis Weik is vacating.

The good news we can now report is that Taveras lost yesterday to Republican Assemblyman Jarett Gandolfo, garnering a mere 38.9% versus some 61% for Gandolfo.

Gandolfo said Taveras crossed a legal line with a single piece of campaign mail.

The mailer told Long Island voters to "vote Democratic, all the way down," covering the ticket from Congress to Suffolk County comptroller to county clerk.

The disclaimer at the bottom named the payer as Friends of Josh Taveras.

That detail matters because Taveras' campaign is enrolled in New York's public matching funds program.

State Board of Elections filings, first reported by Messenger Papers, show Taveras' campaign has received $127,259 in taxpayer-funded matching money.

Gandolfo says that money had no business paying for a slate-wide pitch.

"They have blatantly violated New York State Election Law," Gandolfo said.

He called it "corruption of the Public Campaign Finance system" that "demands immediate investigation and accountability for all involved."

He pointed to Section 14-206(2)(g) of the state Election Law, which bars matching funds from paying for an expenditure "to support or oppose a candidate for an office other than that which the participating candidate seeks."

A Democrat state Senate candidate using taxpayer dollars to prop up a comptroller candidate is precisely the scenario everyone knows is one of the dangers of taxpayer-funding of political campaigns.

Albany Regulators Are Letting the Campaign Grade Its Own Homework

Taveras' campaign is not backing down from the mailer.

Campaign treasurer Kelly Perry said the campaign consulted New York's Public Campaign Finance Board before sending it.

"They confirmed it was acceptable," Perry said.

Perry also defended the mailer's content directly, saying the campaign stands behind "every word of this mailer" and that "every claim is sourced, and every quote is their own."

What Perry did not say is whether the board specifically signed off on spending matching funds on a multi-candidate pitch, rather than just approving the mailer's factual claims.

No regulator has issued a public finding on the funding question itself, and Taveras' campaign has offered no breakdown showing which dollars, public or private, actually covered the mail piece.

That means the only account of what the board approved is coming from the campaign the board would be policing.

Democrats control the Legislature that wrote Section 14-206, and Democrats control the agency now being asked to interpret it on a Democrat candidate's own mailer.

Suffolk County voters cast their ballots without a straight answer from anyone but his campaign treasurer.

That is not a technicality.

It is $127,259 of tax money, spent on a pitch for candidates voters never asked about, with the agency meant to referee the dispute staying silent until after the votes were counted.

At least in this case Taveras took the L.

Sources:

• Ben Smith, "Who Paid for the Democratic Pitch? NY Dem Josh Taveras Faces Campaign Funding Questions," RedState, November 3, 2026.
• U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, "Candidate for New York City Public Advocate Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud," Department of Justice, August 20, 2026.
• New York State Senate, "Election Law Section 14-206," New York State Senate, 2026.
• New York City Department of Investigation, "Angela Aquino Guilty Plea," New York City Department of Investigation, August 20, 2026.