Halloran accuses Kim of hiding his money

From the Times Ledger:

Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) is eligible to receive additional funding from the city, but the newly elected councilman for northeast Queens said the money could have been more useful during last fall’s campaign season and that it must all go toward paying off debts accrued for mailing and printing costs.

Amanda Konstam, a spokeswoman for the city Campaign Finance Board, said Halloran will receive a Tier 2 bonus due to the post-election filings of his Democratic opponent Kevin Kim, who did not participate in the city’s matching funds program.

Candidates can receive Tier 2 bonuses after their opponents earn three times the spending allocation of $161,000, or $483,000. Once qualifying for the bonus, a candidate can receive up to $1,500 in matching funds per contributor and their spending limits are eliminated.

But Halloran said he never received the bonus despite Kim’s total funds exceeding $600,000.

Halloran accused Kim’s campaign of purposely under-reporting its funds to prevent him from receiving the Tier 2 bonus.

“Questions like these are handled through the audit process,” Campaign Finance Board spokesman Eric Friedman said of Halloran’s accusation.

Michael Nussbaum, a spokesman for Kim’s campaign, brushed off Halloran’s accusations that his opponent did not adequately report his campaign contributions.

“I wish Dan Halloran mazel tov that he will get a bonus from the Campaign Finance Board,” he said. “I don’t know what the problem is. The Kim campaign complied with all regulations and all filings were done on a timely basis. The board had no problem with our filings.”