{"id":12672,"date":"2017-12-19T21:41:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/mayor-de-blasio-taking-a-dip-in-iowa-waters\/"},"modified":"2017-12-19T21:41:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T21:41:00","slug":"mayor-de-blasio-taking-a-dip-in-iowa-waters","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/fr\/articles\/mayor-de-blasio-taking-a-dip-in-iowa-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor de Blasio Taking a Dip In Iowa Waters"},"template":"","class_list":["post-12672","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is headed to Iowa. Is he \"testing the waters\" for a presidential campaign?","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":10483}"],"related_issues":[137,2082],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

Editor's note: This post first appeared at 2020 Candidate Watch.org<\/a>, a project of Common Cause. <\/em><\/p>

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is heading to Des Moines, IA, today to give the keynote address at the holiday party of the group Progress Iowa. The New York Times reports<\/a> that de Blasio’s trip “will mark the first landfall of a New York politician in the presidential proving grounds of Iowa ahead of 2020.” Other New Yorkers expected to run for president in 2020—and soon heading to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina—include Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. In other words, although the 2018 midterm elections are still nearly a year away, the 2020 presidential race is already on.<\/p>

How is Mayor de Blasio paying for this trip to Iowa? Is he using funds that comply with federal law candidate contribution restrictions—i.e., no corporate or union funds and no more than $2,700 from any permissible donor? Is he keeping track of this political spending, so he can disclose it if he actually becomes a federal candidate? He’d better be!<\/p>

Federal campaign finance law requires prospective candidates for federal office to pay for any “testing the waters” activities with federally-permissible funds. And if the prospective candidate becomes an actual candidate, federal law requires that candidate to disclose funds previously raised and spent to “test the waters.” Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations describe “testing the waters” as money raised and spent “for the purpose of determining whether an individual should become a candidate.” FEC guidance makes clear that “testing the waters” activities include, but are not limited to:<\/p>