With less than 100 days till Election Day, fundraising for the local U.S. House races gathered momentum in June as political action committees nearly doubled their contributions.
Six candidates vying for seats in the House in the three districts that include parts of Westchester combined to raise $894,852 between June 7 and June 30, after combining for $732,634 between April 1 and June 6.
Those fundraising totals include contributions from political party committees and political action committees affiliated with neither party.
Notably, donations to the six candidates from political action committees nearly doubled from the period beginning April 1 to the period beginning June 7, jumping from $178,442 to $334,040.
Incumbents Eliot Engel, a Bronx Democrat, Nita Lowey, a Harrison Democrat, and Nan Hayworth, a Mount Kisco Republican, all led their opponents in available campaign funds through June 30, and each led his or her opponent in total funds raised during the first half of 2012.
All three will be running in reconfigured districts based on 2010 census data.
Most of the funds raised by local candidates over the first half of the year came in the form of direct contributions from individuals or businesses.
However, with the help of political action committees, small and mid-sized businesses have taken on a more prominent role, said New York City political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
“What”™s happened now in the age of super PACs and coordinated campaigns is that even small businesses are joining together in collectives that contribute money to PACs that can impact races,” said Sheinkopf, principal of consulting and communications firm Sheinkopf Ltd.
The most involved businesses continue to come from the financial services, insurance and real estate industries, Sheinkopf said. But, he added, “Size no longer matters. Only the ability to write a check does.”
Through the first six months of the year, political action committees and other nonaffiliated committees had contributed $741,431 to the campaigns of the six candidates running for the U.S. House in the lower Hudson Valley, and another $707,652 to the New York Senate race.
Sheinkopf said businesses are generally very careful in determining which campaigns they will contribute to, but noted that New York City and the lower Hudson Valley are most popular with candidates seeking to bolster their war chests.
“The New York region is the ATM of American politics,” he said, adding that Westchester and southern Connecticut are home to some of the country”™s wealthiest citizens.
Seeking election in the new 16th District, which includes parts of the Bronx and southern Westchester, Engel raised $303,693 in the first half of the year. Republican challenger Joseph McLaughlin, who previously was a candidate for the New York State Assembly, raised no money and has no campaign funds through June 30, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
In the 17th District, which includes Rockland County and parts of Westchester, Lowey raised $835,471 in the first half of 2012 compared to challenger and former Rye Supervisor Joe Carvin”™s $138,646.
Hayworth and Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney, a former staffer under President Bill Clinton and advisor to Governors David Paterson and Eliot Spitzer, are locked in a tight race in the 18th District, which includes Orange and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess. Through the first six months of the year, Hayworth had raised $750,535 to Maloney”™s $645,643 in a race seen as critical to both parties.
In the Senate race, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ”“ who in 2010 won a special election to succeed current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ”“ has a commanding fundraising edge over Republican nominee Wendy Long, a New York City lawyer.
Gillibrand raised $3.5 million over the first six months of 2012 compared to $319,978 for Long, and has more than $10.5 million in available campaign funds.
