(Editor’s note: Democrat Andrew Cuomo, the state’s attorney general, declared his candidacy for governor on May 22, 2010. Rick Lazio won the New York state Republican Party designation on June 2, 2010.)
For their political piggybanks in the New York governor’s race, new Republican Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, has the lead in money among the declared candidates.
As of mid-April, Levy had $3.9 million cash on hand — or six times the amount of fellow Republican and former Congressman Rick Lazio, according to the campaign finance database of the New York State Board of Elections.
Levy and Lazio are the only declared candidates who had filed a campaign finance report by mid-April.
Other candidates who’ve declared an interest in the governor’s office areLibertarian Kristin Davis, the former “Manhattan Madam” whose high-end call-girl service brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer; perennialGreen Party candidate Howie Hawkins, a UPS worker in Syracuse; Republican candidate Carl Paladino, a multi-millionaire Buffalo developer; and Libertarian and Republican candidate Warren Redlich, a lawyer and Guilderland Town board member in Albany County.
On April 24, Redlich won the Libertarians’ nomination at the party’s state convention. Davis did not attend and it was unclear whether she would continue to campaign.
On their campaign fundraising, candidates are not required to file reports with the State Board of Elections until July 15, but some file earlier.
For the Democrats, the undeclared, much touted potential candidate is Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. As of early May, Cuomo was still deflecting questions about his potential candidacy. He repeatedly stresses that he is focused on his job and the attorney general’s race.
For the attorney general’s race, Cuomo has a campaign bank account that dwarfs the fundraising of the declared gubernatorial candidates. His cash on hand: $16.1 million. If Cuomo declares for governor, that’s cash he’ll have ready for that contest this fall in New York, a state with 2 to 1Democratic enrollment.
As of May 4, here’s a look at what has been reported or made available from campaigns:
Rick Lazio (Republican)
Republican Rick Lazio, former U.S. Representative from New York’s 2nd Congressional District, has been running for New York’s governorship since September 2009. Since January 1, 2009, he has raised a total of $1.4 million, according to the state database. He has spent $743,348, or around 53 percent of his campaign money. And he has around $656,653 cash hand.
Some highlights of his fundraising:
- Of his total $1.4 million, 87 percent — or $1,216,583 — came from named individuals.
- His top five individual donors are all in the family of Robert L. Mercer, the executive of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund management company. With gifts of at least $50,000 installments, members of Mercer’s family gave nearly $260,000. In addition, Robert Book, a Wall Street investor, and his family members gave a total of $100,000.
- A little over ten percent — or $141,394— came from partnerships and committees, including $25,000 from the Hastings Capital Group, a Wall Street investment firm.
- $12,774 came from the Rough Rider PAC, which is affiliated with Lazio and named for his hero President Teddy Roosevelt. This group of contributions also included a $2,500 PAC contribution from JPMorgan Chase, Lazio’s latest employer.
Before launching his gubernatorial bid, Lazio had been out of electoral politics for almost a decade. Lazio had represented New York’s 2nd Congressional District, which stretched from Binghamton to Poughkeepsie along New York’s southern border, from 1993-2001. In 2000, he ran unsuccessfully against Hillary Rodham Clinton for New York’s junior senator’s seat.
After losing, he retired from the House and became an executive vice president of global government relations and public policy for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Lazio was also president and chief executive officer of the Financial Services Forum, an organization that lobbies on behalf of the financial services industry.
In the governor’s race, Lazio has been campaigning and fundraising longer than any other declared candidate. The growing field of candidates is less likely to crimp his fundraising than his own political history, said Jeffrey M. Stonecash, a political science professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.
Recalling Lazio’s Senate race against Clinton, Stonecash said Lazio has a “legacy of not doing well.” Added Stonecash: “I don’t think Lazio’s problem is the number of people in the race.” Instead, he said, “He just walked away with a terrible reputation.”
Steve Levy (Republican)
Republican Steve Levy of Suffolk County switched from the Democratic party on March 19 to run for governor on the GOP ballot line. He has not filed any reports from his gubernatorial fundraising. But Levy does has a big war chest left over from re-election as Suffolk County executive, according to the state campaign finance database. Those funds will carry over to his gubernatorial campaign.
Since his last election on November 6, 2007, he has raised a total of $2.2 million, according to the state database. He has spent $745,076 — or around 34 percent of his total funds raised during this period. And he has at least $1.4 million cash hand, according to state reports.
The State Board of Elections database shows these highlights of his fundraising between November 6, 2007, and April 15, 2010:
- Of his $2.2 million raised, around 28 percent — or $612,085 — came from named individuals.
- For this period, his top donor was Gary Melius, owner/restorer of Oheka Castle, America’s second largest home, who gave a total of $39,000.
- 47 percent — or $1,032,228 — came from partnerships, corporations, unions and associations.
- Around 8 percent — or $173,390 — came from political action committees or PACs, groups that raise money for candidates or issues.
Levy’s record in public office leads some experts to suggest that his chances aren’t just a shot in the dark. “He’s staked out a reputation of being sort of an independent,” said SU political scientist Jeff Stonecash. “He may have a shot.”
Carl Paladino (Republican, Conservative)
Republican candidate Carl Paladino has pledged as much as $10 million of his personal fortune, which he estimates at $150 million, for his gubernatorial campaign. He entered the race on April 5 and has not filed a campaign finance report.
“We haven’t been fundraising because Carl’s putting in,” said Michael Caputo, a chief strategist with the Paladino campaign, said in a phone interview. Paladino planned to start fundraising around May 1, Caputo said.
In the past, Paladino, a multi-millionaire Buffalo developer, has used his money to support high-profile Democrats like disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in both her presidential and senate campaigns.
Warren Redlich (Libertarian, Republican)
Republican and Libertarian candidate Warren Redlich had not filed any reports with the State Board of Elections.
“We haven’t really made a push yet,” Redlich said in a phone interview. “As far as fundraising goes, I’m on hold until the campaign gets taken more seriously.”
As of mid-April, he had raised almost $10,000 and spent “pocket change” on online ads to raise awareness of his efforts, Redlich said. He is courting support from the emerging Tea Party movment and he’s personally absorbed any costs associated from traveling to Tea Party events, he said. So far, he said, he has one staffer — his campaign manager.
Now that he has the Libertarian nomination, Redlich said, he’s still hoping to get on the Republican primary ballot in September through the state’s ballot petitioning process. But if that fails, he said, he will run as the Libertarian candidate in the general election.
“It’s a long shot,” Redlich says. “But I want to take a shot at it.”
Kristin Davis (Libertarian)
Libertarian candidate Kristin Davis has not filed any reports with the State Board of Elections.
Davis boasted financial prowess in a recent e-mail interview: “I spent ten years in finance where I started as a trading assistant and finished my career as vice president of operations of a hedge fund,” Davis said in an e-mail interview. “I created a multi-million-dollar international business from scratch.”
That business was the Emperor’s Club VIP, the prostitution ring that figured in former Gov. Spitzer’s resignation and for which Davis served four months in New York City’s Riker’s Island jail.
Howie Hawkins (Green)
Perennial Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins declared his candidacy for governor in early May. He has not filed any reports with the State Board of Elections for the governor’s race.
(Paul Brockwell Jr. is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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