Steve Kimatian (Matt Cohen)
For Ellen Eagen, an $8,000 contribution to her father, Steve Kimatian, for his mayoral campaign was also an investment in her family’s future.
“If Syracuse can become the vibrant city that I think it has the potential to be, there’s no doubt I’m going to stay here and raise my children here. But if it continues to be kind of an average city, we’ll just go elsewhere,” said Eagen. She moved her family from California to Syracuse two years ago partly to help with her father’s mayoral race. Now she’s been working full time as his campaign treasurer.
Eagen, 40, is one of nearly 150 named individuals who had given campaign money to Kimatian as of Oct. 23. Most contributions come from people who have worked with or know Kimatian, as well as people he has gotten to know campaigning door to door.
Kimatian, a longtime TV executive and political novice, is running as the Republican candidate for mayor of Syracuse. He’ll face Democrat Stephanie Miner, who’s been on the Common Council for eight years, and Conservative Party candidate Otis Jennings, a former director of parks and recreation. The election is Nov. 3.
Kimatian has raised only half as much as front-runner Miner.
The majority of Kimatian’s funding comes from individuals, partners and loans.
Here’s the breakdown of Kimatian’s fundraising, according to campaign finance disclosure reports filed with the New York State Board of Elections:
- Since April, he raised $84,334 in total contributions, compared to $564,118 for Miner and $145,431 for Jennings.
- 85 percent of Kimatian’s donations — or $71,926—are from named individual contributors.
- 15 percent — or $12,408 — came from business and corporate contributors.
Kimatian’s first campaign finance strategy was to target the people he knew. So he sent letters out to people on his Christmas card list, Kimatian’s treasurer Eagen, said.
One card recipient was Gary Pickard, a real estate developer who knows Kimatian from work with the Syracuse School District Foundation. Pickard credits Kimatian with the business sense needed to get the city back on the right track. He and his wife Mary each individually contributed $4,600 to the campaign and the two opened their home for a Kimatian fundraiser in early October.
“I just think he’ll be a great mayor and it’s about time we had a business man take over that job,” Pickard said. “Not enough people know Steve. He’s not a political hack, he hasn’t been doing this for a long time. But I think as soon as people know who he is he’s going to be an obvious choice.”
Kimatian’s connections in community groups are also a source of money. Mary Cotter is chair of United Way’s Success by 6 Policy Council, an organization Kimatian worked closely with. Cotter contributed $500 to his mayoral campaign. Another $500 came from Frederick Parker, who served on the Upstate Medical Foundation board with Kimatian for four years.
Kimatian’s contributor pattern is overwhelmingly made up of hefty individual donations, while Miner has received a greater number of small contributions.
Here’s a look at that breakdown:
- 16 percent of Kimatian’s 147 named individual contributors gave $1,000 or more.
- 33 percent gave between $200 and $1,000.
- The average individual contribution was $421.
- Miner’s average individual contribution was $99.
As of Oct. 23, Kimatian had spent $171,817. To avoid falling into the red, he lent his campaign $150,000 since April.
“He doesn’t have a summer a home. He isn’t retired and this is very important to him he’s very passionate about it so he said, ‘If I can’t get enough from individual donors I’m going to fund this campaign. I’m going to make this happen,’” treasurer, Eagen said.
Most of Kimatian’s $170,817 in expenses has gone to his Web site, campaign counseling, and radio ads. As of Oct. 23, Kimatian also trailed Miner in the spending. By comparison, Miner had spent $485,738. That’s $315,000 more than Kimatian.
Going into the Republican primary on Sept. 15, Kimatian had also trailed his rival, Otis Jennings, for the nomination. In the primary Kimatian raised less than one third as much as Jennings, with $40,851 for Kimatian and $124,858 for Jennings. But even with a smaller campaign war chest, Kimatian won the GOP nomination on a vote of 1,652 to 1,272.
“I think it’s a misrepresentation in this case to think that the more money you have to spend, the better chance you have,” Eagen said, “We proved that wrong in the primary and we’ll do it again in the election.”
(Julia Terruso is a junior majoring in newspaper journalism.)
-30-
