Overview
- The three Democratic candidates debated on Thursday, May 22, in a contentious Spectrum NY1 forum that featured repeated moderator interventions and Drew Warshaw revealing an “ICE OUT” T‑shirt on live television.
- Public matching funds have redirected small-dollar donor money into the contest with $4.63 million disbursed so far and DiNapoli receiving over $2 million while Raj Goyle has about $1.7 million and Drew Warshaw about $840,690.
- DiNapoli announced that the New York State Common Retirement Fund returned 11.94% for the year and closed the fiscal year in March at a record roughly $295.4 billion as he defended reliance on outside managers and passive index holdings.
- Challengers pressed for a more activist use of the pension to tackle housing and utility costs, demand divestment from firms tied to ICE and fossil fuels, and cut roughly $1 billion in annual fees paid to outside Wall Street managers.
- Early voting begins June 13 and the June 23 Democratic primary will decide who faces Republican Joseph Hernandez in November with the matching-funds program likely to shape ad buys and statewide visibility going into the vote.