NEW YORK — New York City mayoral campaigns aren’t allowed to strategize with super PACs that support their candidates, but Andrew Cuomo has found a way around that.
Redboxing: A Legal Practice
With significantly less cash on hand than he’d hoped due to a paperwork error, the Democratic frontrunner is relying on a legal practice known as redboxing to communicate his preferred messaging to anyone squinting at the bottom of his website. And if the reader happens to work for a super PAC backing Cuomo, that messaging could find its way into the TV ads the group is airing on his behalf.
Strategic Messaging
He would love an ad highlighting his messaging against antisemitism, and one noting he’s a progressive who stood up to President Donald Trump on abortion. Ads should target voters between 40 and 55 years old. And Cuomo doesn’t just want videos, but also door-to-door canvassing. The campaign also provides 14 video clips of Cuomo talking — some as short as five seconds long — that could be used in ads.
Secretive Campaign Tactics
It’s all featured surreptitiously in a page on Cuomo’s campaign website, accessed by scrolling past a donation link button, an issue page and some of his biography and finding the words “Message for Voters” in small font, next to the campaign’s privacy policy.
Legal Implications
The Federal Elections Commission has effectively endorsed the practice, releasing a statement in 2022 concluding that laws barring coordination aren’t triggered by web pages available to the general public.
Impacts on Other Candidates
Eric Adams’ campaign provided similar guidance during his successful 2021 mayoral campaign — guidance super PACs used to strategize spending millions of dollars on his behalf, said an operative who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign strategy.
Conclusion
Despite the controversy surrounding this practice, Andrew Cuomo’s strategic approach with super PACs raises important questions about campaign finance laws and the influence of independent expenditure committees in political campaigns.
