As the 2014 election season draws to a close, tenure reigns supreme on the fundraising circuit, and it’s paying dividends on the campaign trail for incumbent U.S. Representative Tim Bishop.
Mr. Bishop continued to outpace his opponent, State Senator Lee Zeldin, in donations received during the past financial quarter. Mr. Bishop’s donations stacked up from the likes of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, movie studio head Harvey Weinstein and fashion designer Tory Burch, and were used to pay for legal services, fundraising consultations and media buys.
Mr. Bishop raised $700,001 between July 1 and September 30, according to his campaign committee’s most recent third-quarter filing with the Federal Election Commission, surpassing Mr. Zeldin’s $659,454. Since the beginning of the election, Mr. Bishop has out-raised Mr. Zeldin by more than a million dollars, collecting $2.66 million to his challenger’s $1.64 million.
“We raised $700,000, the most we’ve ever raised in a three-month quarter, and the three quarters combined have been our best three,” Mr. Bishop said. “From April 1 through September 30, we raised $1.2 million. That’s pretty damn good.”
Notable donors for Mr. Zeldin include New York City-based Republican super-donor David Koch, former congressional candidate Randy Altschuler, and Donald Trump. The majority of Mr. Zeldin’s contributions—roughly $1.3 million—have come from individual donors, with $268,173 coming from various political action committees, or PACs, and the remaining $34,156 from various party committees.
Along with the $1.5 million in individual contributions his campaign received, many of Mr. Bishop’s donations came from PACs primarily funded by unions, including the Service Employees International Union, the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, totaling $1.15 million. PAC to the Future, run by Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy’s Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, contributed $10,000, while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee gave $47,851.
While both candidates had their highest donation totals of the campaign in the third quarter, they also did the most spending in that time frame, with Mr. Zeldin shelling out $620,212 between July 1 and October 15, bringing his total spending to $1.3 million and leaving him with $308,200 on hand, according to FEC filings. Mr. Bishop more than doubled his opponent’s spending with $1.3 million in net expenditures during the same time frame, bringing his total expenditures to $2.15 million and leaving him with $674,095 on hand.
Mr. Zeldin entered the general election campaign at a disadvantage, trailing Mr. Bishop by nearly a million dollars in cash on hand with just $136,358 to the incumbent’s $1,129,952, due in part to a primary challenge from former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission prosecutor George Demos. Mr. Zeldin had to shell out $129,046 despite raising only $115,795, while Mr. Bishop brought in $349,137 despite spending only $27,963.
Despite the fundraising and spending efforts by both candidates, the majority of the spending in the race for New York’s 1st District has come from the outside organizations known as 501(c)(4) nonprofits, or more colloquially as Super PACs, which are able to spend limitlessly as long as they have no direct contact with political parties or candidates.
Thus far, Super PACs have spent more than $7.4 million between the two candidates, more than on any other race in the state, putting this one among the top 10 races nationwide in terms of independent expenditures.
Once again, Mr. Bishop is on the winning end of this battle, with $4.9 million being spent primarily to bash Mr. Zeldin. Of that, $1.9 million of that is from Americans for Common Sense, $1.55 million is from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $1.22 million is from the House Majority PAC.
“I have no problem with being the recipient of factual attack ads, but the ads that have targeted me throughout this last month and a half just haven’t been factually accurate, just one allegation after another that was completely untrue,” Mr. Zeldin said.
Mr. Zeldin has benefited from $3.7 million in outside spending, including $1.37 million from the American Action Network and $2.1 million from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Kyle Campbell on Oct 28, 2014