In the money race for Onondaga County’s First District Legislature seat, the Republican incumbent Richard Lesniak is ahead by about three dollars to one.
That’s according to a financial disclosure report filed October 5th with the state Board of Election. The report shows Lesniak raised $6,075 over the previous two months to keep his seat. That compares to $2,400 raised by his challenger, Democrat Jim Borchik. Lesniak says he is pleased with the results so far.
“The fundraising has gone very well. I have a good relationship with the people and they’re willing to support me.” [Lesniak]
Some of the highlights of Lesniak’s report include:
- 29 percent of Lesniak’s contributions — $1,766 — came from individual or corporate donations, each of whom gave $200 or less.
- 26 percent of Lesniak’s contributions — $1,599 — came from three unions: $500 from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; $1,000 from the New York State Law Enforcement Officers Union Council 82, a subgroup of the AFSCME that Lesniak works for as a staff representative; and $99 from the Onondaga County Deputy Sheriff’s Police Association.
- 74 percent of Lesniak’s contributions — $4,476 — were made during a single fundraising dinner, on August 20th at the Mohegan Manor Banquet Hall in Baldwinsville. Of his spending, 64 percent of Lesniak’s expenditures for the period — $1,459 — were related to this event.
- Lesniak spent $2,267.40 during the period, leaving him with a balance of $7,262.53. That compares to Borchik’s remaining balance of $1,141.71.
Lesniak says the single fundraiser was part of his campaign strategy and at this point he doesn’t plan to do any other fundraising events.
“I setup basically a budget of how much I needed to do the campaign and then targeted the amount of dollars I would need to raise to accomplish that, and raised enough funds on the one fundraiser.” [Lesniak]
Syracuse University political scientist Danny Hayes says many candidates will not share Lesniak’s strategy, but they can probably identify with it.
“Raising money is not why they got into it. They got into it because they are interested in politics and because they have ideas and want to serve the community. Raising money is a part of it that most candidates would rather do without.” [Danny Hayes]
The election is November 6th.
For Democracywise, I’m Jordan Meddy.
(Jordan Meddy is a broadcast journalism graduate student.)
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