With a nearly $1-milllion war chest and little re-election challenge, state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, has become a major donor to other New York Republicans this election season.
His largest single donation of $75,000 went to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee, according to financial disclosure reports filed with the state election board. DeFrancisco is running for re-election to the 50th State Senate District.
That’s a smart investment for DeFrancisco, said Kristi Andersen, a political scientist at Syracuse University. “In a sense, it’s smart of him to do because he’s not giving the money to any particular candidates,” Andersen said. “This says ‘I trust the party to make these decisions about who to allocate the money to, I’m supporting my party, I’m giving it in this big lump sum.’”
DeFrancisco has represented the 50th State Senate District for ten terms. This November, he has no Democratic challenger and is running against Green Party candidate Michael Donnelly, a lawyer from the Syracuse area who has done little campaigning. The 50th State Senate District includes parts of Onondaga and Cayuga counties.
The election is Nov. 6.
In an earlier interview with Democracywise, DeFrancisco said it would be “a disaster” if Republicans did not maintain their narrow majority in the New York State Senate after this election. Right now, he said, the GOP-controlled state senate balances out the Democratic-led Assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat.
“We are working well together,” DeFrancisco said.
Some highlights of his campaign spending for others, from campaign finance reports filed with the New York State Board of Elections:
- As of Oct. 5, DeFrancisco had $959,887 on hand in two campaign accounts.
- His donations to other Republicans include $1,000 each to campaigns for Assemblyman Don Miller, R-Clay, in the 127th State Assembly race; Patrick Kilmartin, candidate for Family Court Judge; Tom Miller, a County Court Judge hopeful; and Sandy Schepp, candidate for Onondaga County Clerk. DeFrancisco is Schepp’s largest donor in this election.
- He also gave $150 to U.S. Rep. Ann-Marie Buerkle, R-Onondaga Hill, in the 24th Congressional District race against Democrat Dan Maffei of DeWitt and Green Party candidate Ursula Rozum of Syracuse.
- $2,310 went to the Onondaga County Republican Committee; $1,350 to the Independence Party of New York; and $250 each to the Republican Committees of Camillus and Skaneateles.
In his campaign fundraising, DeFrancisco’s supporters have grown to include some traditionally Democratic donors such as labor unions. In his own fundraising, his campaign finance reports show that between Jan. 19, 2012, and Oct. 5, 2012, DeFrancisco received $266,546 in contributions. Among his largest donors:
- $8,300 from the AT&T Political Action Committee , or PAC, for New York.
- $7, 000 from the New York Anesthesiologists PAC.
- $5,000 from RPAC of New York State, a political action committee of Realtors.
- $5,000 from Daniel Mezzalingua, a non-voting member of the Syracuse University Board of Trustees. He was DeFrancisco’s largest named individual donor this year.
- $1,800 from IUOE Local 158, an operating engineer’s union representing the majority of Upstate New York. 2011 was the first year that this particular union supported DeFrancisco in state office.
- $1, 000 each from Teamesters Local 817, a theater industry union headquartered in Smithtown, N.Y.; District Council 37, a New York City-based union of public employees; and the New York AFL-CIO, a federation of unions headquartered in Albany.
(Durrie Lawrence is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and international relations.)
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