Mayor de Blasio and New York's Complicated History with Campaign Finance

Mayor de Blasio is facing investigations into whether his administration over-donated to Democratic Senate campaigns back in 2014. However, campaign finance has always been a murky area for New York politicians.

In an interview with WNYC's Brian Lehrer, the Mayor was very transparent about his wish to help raise funds for Democrats in a 2014 Senate race. He said politicians do that all the time. 

"All of my predecessors, if you look down through the history in different ways, have supported their parties and party structures," said de Blasio.

And supporting party structures means fundraising. Forham Political Science Professor Christina Greer says fundraising has always been a gray area where a lot of money can go to campaigns somewhat legally. But that's no excuse for de Blasio.

"You don't want to just make it flippant like it's been done in the past, it's fine. That is not ok," said Greer.

The U.S. attorney has issued subpoenas to many of the Mayor's top aides. They will start giving evidence in the next few weeks.