GOP state Senate hopeful raises more cash than others
July 17, 2008
Republican state Senate contender Barbara Donno’s latest campaign finance report shows she raised nearly $408,000 - most of it from Senate Republicans’ campaign committee - and the filing seemed to indicate she was getting more than any other GOP Senate candidate statewide.
However, Senate officials late yesterday said Donno’s campaign incorrectly listed $175,000 in senate campaign funds that were made and spent on July 14, three days after the campaign report’s deadline.
That late money was part of the $308,000 the Plandome mayor has spent on TV ads against freshman Democrat Sen. Craig Johnson of Port Washington, including one assailing “Albany’s priorities are Albany.”
But Donno’s filing shows that $355,000 of her money came from the GOP Senate’s Albany-based campaign committee, and she raised only $53,000 locally with only $39,664 left in her coffers.
Johnson has amassed nearly $454,000 to wage his own re-election bid in the North Shore Nassau seventh district, raising $315,000 in the last six months.
Campaign money plays a crucial role in the races where Republicans are trying to hold on to their 40-year dominance of the Senate where they now have a narrow two vote edge.
Doug Forand, Senate Democrats chief strategist, criticized Donno for being “particularly disingenuous for putting up an ad saying she is not a politician when her entire campaign is funded by Albany politicians.”
He also said new Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos “has not matured in his new role” and is letting “his personal vendetta against Craig drive his thinking” by pouring money into an unwinnable race.
Matt Mahoney, executive director of the GOP Senate campaign committee, countered, “Democrats are running scared” because “this is a very vulnerable seat…and Johnson is very nervous.”
Mahoney declined to say how Donno’s funding from the Senate GOP campaign committee compared to other GOP contenders. As of the July 11 deadline, Sen. Serphin Maltese of Queens got $333,000 from the campaign committee, and upstate challengers John Murtagh got $244,000 and Liz Feld got $157,000. Donno received $180,000.
In the other hotly contested Long Island Senate race, Brookhaven Supervisor Brian X. Foley reported having $178,522, more than twice the $83,700 his primary foe Jimmy Dahroug has on hand to battle in the Sept. 9 Democratic Senate primary.
While Foley started with $130,000 in his town campaign fund, Forand said “we’re comfortable” with Foley’s filing, noting he entered the race late.
Their opponent, 36-year Senate veteran Caesar Trunzo’s filing has $253,400 cash on hand and raised $68,660 in the past six months, according to an aide.
Source: Newsday
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