Wilson: It's "Unfortunate" Antonacci Accepted Public Campaign Funds

If 2010 Republican state comptroller candidate Harry Wilson were running again, he might not need to opt in to the public campaign financing pilot program for the race.

But 2014 Republican pick Robert Antonacci is all in trying it out—and Wilson says it's a bad idea.

During his 2010 run, Wilson had a large pot of personal money to pull from to fund his race against Tom DiNapoli. This year, with Wilson choosing not to run, Onondaga County’s Robert Antonacci, who accepted the GOP nomination Wednesday at the Republican State Convention, says he will opt into the public campaign finance system set up for the comptroller’s race.

"I think it is silly the way it was developed," Wilson said. "It was developed in the 11th hour. It was developed for only one office. I generally oppose public financing of campaigns. I think it is welfare for the politicians. Even though it sounds good in concept, the rules are almost always written to benefit the incumbents. And so as a general matter I think they end up tilting the playing field towards the incumbents, which is bad for democracy. In this case I oppose the public financing for the comptroller's office. I think it is unfortunate that Bob has chosen to accept it. I understand why he has because he is entering the race late. But I would oppose that."

The pilot public campaign finance program enacted in this year’s state budget was criticized by DiNapoli, who in the past has called for one but is now opting out.

In his nomination acceptance speech Wednesday Antonacci questioned DiNapoli’s decision.

"We accountants understand the concept of consistency, which in this case means if you call for publicly financed campaigns on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you don’t run from it on Friday when you get what you asked for," he said.

Antonacci, who announced his intention to run just one week before the start of this year’s Republican convention, was quick to support the program and say he would opt in. According to the Antonacci for Accountability campaign fund January 2014 filing, Antonacci had $30,710.63 in his coffers. Meanwhile, DiNapoli had nearly $2.1 million in his campaign fund.

Wilson’s personal finances made headlines during the 2010 election cycle when he released unredacted tax returns.