In the last campaign finance filings before Election Day, the Rye Republican ticket continued to maintain a decisive fundraising margin, more than doubling their Democratic counterparts, while also inching closer to the $60,000 threshold.
The GOP amassed a total of $58,341 in donations from 115 donors, according to the latest financial report filed with the state Board of Elections on Oct. 24. The total reflects an increase of $7,067 and 20 new donors since the Oct. 3 filing. The average contribution was $507.
The Democratic slate, meanwhile, collected an additional $9,955 and independent mayoral candidate Rick McCabe gathered $5,901 in contributions, bolstering a successful fundraising campaign without any political party backing.
The final October filing gives the GOP ticket a $31,869 fundraising margin over the Democrats, including an additional 38 donors.
“We feel really good where we are and we’re very thankful to the people that continue to donate, and now we’re focused on winning the vote,” Republican mayoral candidate Bill Henderson told The Record.
Their donation pile has more than doubled since their July filing, when the GOP had raised $26,225. The ticket of Robin Jovanovich, James Fee, and Maria Shuck, who are running alongside Henderson, announced their candidacies in March.
Top donors included Beth and Phillip Moyles, who both individually donated $1,000 to the campaign. In total, 33 people donated the maximum amount of $1,000.
In Rye politics, only two tickets have surpassed $60,000 in fundraising — the Joe Sack-led Republican slate in 2013 and the Josh Cohn-led Democratic foursome in 2017. Backed by the record-breaking contributions, both tickets easily swept into office.
“The important part about raising the money, regardless of what our competitors do, is what we do with the money, and what we’ve tried to do is convey a kind of a simple message that this is a balanced, bipartisan team for three different party registrations,” said Matt Thomas, the Republicans’ campaign manager.
Although Republicans dominated the overall fundraising battle, the Democrats collected roughly $3,000 more in contributions during the latest filing — the first time they outpaced the Republicans during the campaign.
The Democratic ticket — consisting of mayoral candidate Josh Nathan and running mates James Ward, Amy Kesavan, and Marian Anderson — collected their $9,955 from 29 donors, increasing their total donations to $26,472 from 77 donors, with $343 for an average campaign contribution.
Top donors included Kevin Brown, Maria Ragucci, Melinda Stein, and Michael Konicoff, who all donated $1,000. The ticket had 11 donors contribute the maximum amount of $1,000.
“The fundraising numbers show our supporters enthusiasm is really at an all-time high as we enter early voting,” Nathan said. “We’ve been meeting just hundreds of voters every week when we’re out and about, and what we keep hearing is that people want a city government that embraces comprehensive planning, flood mitigation and transparency.”
McCabe raised the $5,910 in new donations from 20 new donors toward his independent mayoral run, bringing his total contributions to $19,265.
He came within roughly $7,000 of matching the Democrats’ overall fundraising total.
McCabe noted that he is running without a slate, while both of the other mayoral candidates are fundraising for themselves and three council candidates. He said he feels confident about the support he’s received.
He had an average of $301 per campaign contribution.
New donors to McCabe’s campaign include Meg Cameron, the former Democratic committee chairwoman, and her husband James Glickenhaus, who both donated $1,000.
“People making a choice about what I’ve said and the other candidates have said is what’s going to decide this election,” he said. “It’s not going to be about who raised the most, but I feel great about where I am.”
A post-election filing requirement with the state Board of Elections is due on Dec. 1.
