The success of Michael Bloomberg's $69 million race for Mayor of New York against Mark Green was widely seen as a setback for campaign finance reform. But the Bloomberg campaign demonstrated the limits of campaign finance reform under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution, not its failure. On the whole, New York City's reformed campaign finance law worked remarkably well in its first real test. Still, Bloomberg's victory showed that the law needs to be improved.

This was the first full election under the 1998 reforms to New York City's public campaign finance law. The revised law provides four dollars of public funding for every dollar of private money for contributions up to $250, to candidates who accept spending limits. Public funds are limited to 55 percent of the spending limits. Anticipating a Michael Bloomberg, the law provides a bigger public match and lifts the spending cap for a candidate whose high-spending opponent doesn't join the public finance system.

Every major candidate for citywide office other than Bloomberg ran under the city's campaign finance system, as did all five of the victorious borough presidents and forty-seven of the fifty-one members of the incoming City Council. All eleven major Democratic candidates for citywide office ran under the system and had nearly the same amount of money available for their campaigns. The elections were decided on the quality of the candidates, their issues and organizations, not on which candidate had the most money.

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