For her political money, Republican Joanie Mahoney is tapping local donors, some businesses and her own bank account.
Mahoney is running for Onondaga County executive against Democrat Bill Magnarelli in the Nov. 6 election. The two hope to succeed Nick Pirro, the Republican who is retiring after 20 years in the office.
Neither Mahoney nor a campaign representative responded to six requests for interviews for this article.
Campaign finance reports filed with the state Board of Elections show Mahoney raised less money than Magnarelli as of the Oct. 5 filing date. Since she launched her campaign in May, Mahoney’s campaign has received a total of about $228,000. That compares to about $271,700 for Magnarelli.
Here are some highlights from Mahoney’s Oct. 5 report to the state:
- In the week before Oct. 5, Mahoney raised $27,497.50
- Of that, almost 70 percent — $19,074 — of the money that Mahoney received in this diclosure period came from 44 individual donors
- 21 percent — $5,850 —of the contributions to the campaign came from corporations and businesses.
- The campaign spent 20 percent — $5,599.89 —of the contributions received in this reporting period.
- 60 percent — $3324.56 —of the money the campaign spent in the reporting period went to Opinion Factor Inc., a market research company out of Utah.
- There are a total of $100,000 in outstanding loans that Mahoney and her husband, Marc Overdyk, made to the campaign.
The individual small donors are a backbone of Mahoney’s campaign. Half of the 44 people who donated to the campaign are from Syracuse. Most gave under $500.
Cynthia Markovitz, a Syracuse resident, donated $400 to the campaign. She has never donated to Mahoney before, she said. But this time she felt compelled to. Markovitz’s husband taught at Mahoney’s alma mater, Corcoran High School. “We’ve watched her grow up,” Markovitz said.
Markovitz describes Mahoney as trustworthy. “She’s open, honest and willing to talk to everybody about issues,” she said.
Mahoney hit a bump in the road when Dale Sweetland, the Republican Party’s primary candidate, received a large contribution from the Onondaga County Republican Committee right before conceding the primary race to Mahoney. The money was part of a $21,700 donation the county GOP promised Sweetland before he lost the primary.
But money does not always give candidates an advantage in local elections, a political scientist with campaign experience says.
Robert McClure, a political science professor at Syracuse University, was a campaign aide to now-retired Congressman Lee Hamilton. Candidates need money to run a campaign, McClure said. But, in his experience, he said, it is often not the most important resource. “In general,” said McClure, “I think both the press and the public exaggerate the importance of money in campaigns.”
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