For his campaign money, Republican Andrew Russo counts on individual donors and his party’s big checkbook in the 49th state Senate District race.
Individual donations account for half of Russo’s campaign funds. And his largest single contributor is the New York Republican State Senate Campaign Committee, according to the state Board of Election database on campaign finance reports. The GOP committee gave $172,000. That’s 30.6 percent of all his money from political action committees, which are groups that raise money to support or oppose candidates and policies.
The party’s support is a “very good sign” for Russo, said Jeff Stonecash, a political scientist at Syracuse University. It means that the GOP has decided he has a chance to win. “And they are willing to invest in him,” said Stonecash.
Russo is the Republican challenger for the 49th state Senate District. He is running against the incumbent Sen. Dave Valesky, D-Oneida.
The 49th Senate District includes Madison County and parts of Cayuga, Onondaga and Oneida Counties. The district is slightly more Democratic. Of 364,288 voters, Democrats account for 37.3 percent compared to 32.7 percent for Republicans. The election is Nov. 2.
Here’s an overview of Russo’s campaign finances for this election, from the state campaign finance reports:
- During the month of October, Russo’s fundraising began to gain ground on Valesky. In October alone Russo raised $281,068 while Valesky trailed with $213,931. But the overall balance is still in Valesky’s favor. As of Oct. 22, Valesky had $277,143 on hand. Russo had $156,414.
- Since he started campaigning in July 2009, Russo has raised $562,402.
- Of that, 46.5 percent — or $261,226—came from individual contributors.
- The biggest individual contributor is the Suits family, of Cortland, who gave a total of $52,569. The Suits family owned Suit-Kote, a road construction company.
- 43.4 percent — or $243,945 — from political action committees, or PACs.
- In addition to the GOP state senate PAC, his biggest PAC contributions are $9,500 each from the Friends for the Elections of Dean Skelos, the senator minority leader; the New Yorker for Growth, a group dedicated to make direct financial contributions to campaigns; and Dadey for Senate, the PAC of Tom Dadey, the newly elected chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee.
- 11.5 percent – or $64,732 — from corporations. Those include $5,000 from Driver’s Village of Cicero; $4,000 from American Asphalt Distributors of Albany; and $3,000 from E.R.S.C Inc of Lackawanna.
- The campaign has spent $403,732.
It’s common for challengers like Russo to have more individual contributors than PAC or corporations, said Kristie Andersen, an SU political scientist. “You’ll often find that the incumbents will have more PACs and corporate donations because the assumption is that the incumbents will win. The PACs in the district already have relationships with them and it is natural that they want to keep those connections,” she said.
Though slightly lower than individual donations, PAC’s contributions are significant in Russo’s campaign considering that he is a challenger. “If the Republicans are giving him a substantial amount of money, they have identified this district as one that potentially has a chance to win.” Andersen said.
(Marie Claudet is graduate broadcast and digital graduate student.)
– 30 –
