On December 1, 1995, the Mayor proclaimed a non-partisan special election to be held on January 16, 1996, to fill a vacancy in City Council district five. Pursuant to Campaign Finance Board Rule 3-02(a) - (d), political committees raising and/or spending funds for the special election that have been authorized by candidates participating in the New York City Campaign Finance Program for this special election must file disclosure statements with the Campaign Finance Board on December 15, 1995 and January 5, 12, and 16, and February 13, 19961. Committees that do not go on to raise or spend funds for the primary or general election to be held in this Council district later in 196 must file additional disclosure statements for the special election on July 15, 1996 and January 15, 19972.
The January 16, 1996 deadline is for a semi-annual disclosure statement. It derives from State Election law and is also the deadline for filing a disclosure statement with the Board of Elections. Because it happens to fall on the day of the special election, the Campaign Finance Board will consider a January 16 disclosure statement it receives no later than close of business on January 17, 1996 to have been filed in a timely manner. Moreover, because committees must file two Campaign Finance Board disclosure statements in the four days leading up to this election and because January 15 is a legal holiday, for this election the Board will waive the daily disclosures in the week preceding the election otherwise required by Rule 3-02(e). See Rule 1-06(d) 3.
NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD
1 January 15, and February 12, 1996 are legal holidays. See Rule 3-02(h).
2 A special election committee that does go on to raise funds for the primary or general election must file disclosure statements for the latter election(s) beginning on July 15, 1996, should the candidate join the Campaign Finance Program for those elections. All transactions reported by such a committee in its July 15, 1996 disclosure statement will be presumed to be subject to the Program limits and other requirements for the primary and general elections. See Advisory Opinion No. 1994-1 (February 23, 1994).
3 The requirements of Article 14 of the New York State Election Law are beyond the scope of this advisory opinion. Moreover, this advisory opinion does not summarize all Campaign Finance Program requirements applicable in this special election. See generally, New York City Administrative Code §§3-701, et seq.; New York City Campaign Finance Board Rules (52 RCNY §§-01, et seq.).