The Republican slate is off to a commanding fundraising lead in the run-up to the November City Council elections, outpacing Democrats in campaign contributions by more than an 8-to-1 margin, state filings show.
The Republican candidates brought in a $26,225 haul from a total of 52 donors, according to financial disclosures filed with the state Board of Elections in July.
The contributions average out to approximately $504 per donation.
Fourteen people forked over $1,000 to the Republican campaign — the maximum contribution allowed under campaign finance law. The candidates — Bill Henderson, James Fee, Robin Jovanovich, and Maria Shuck — also donated about $7,000 of their own money to the campaign.
It was a paltry performance for the Democratic ticket, however, which only generated $3,851 in contributions across 17 donors, at an average rate of $226, the BOE filings show. Just one person made a $1,000 donation to the Dems slate.
Meanwhile, independent mayoral candidate Rick McCabe logged just over $3,830 from 12 contributors at an average of $319 per donation. McCabe was the latest entry into the race. His candidacy was only certified by the Westchester Board of Elections on June 17.
Henderson, the Republican candidate for mayor, called the fundraising totals “encouraging,” particularly this early in the campaign.
“It’s important to have the money, to get the most out of the money before the last couple of months … so you can focus on the real campaign and not just fundraising,” he said.
Henderson also told The Record that the party’s fundraising totals had eclipsed $31,000 as of Monday.
The GOP’s strong start out of the gate comes after leaders of a group that advocated to put artificial turf at Nursery Field last year pledged to support Republican candidates who were “like-minded,” and initially criticized the Republicans on the City Council for standing in the way of the project.
Republican council members Henderson and Keith Cunningham, who is not running, ultimately supported the turf plan, and two leaders of the group, Let the Kids Play, have since carried petitions for this year’s GOP candidates.
Both Henderson and Cunningham have denied that the Let the Kids Play leaders’ offer influenced their votes. And none of the group’s leaders were listed in the Republicans’ July disclosures as having donated to the campaign.
The fundraising tallies marked the first required financial disclosures of this year’s general election. The filing deadline with the state BOE was July 11. The candidates’ next filing date is scheduled for Oct. 3.
The Republicans still have a long way to go, however, to eclipse the sizable war chests of some recent council tickets.
In 2017, the Josh Cohn-led Democratic ticket pulled in a high-water mark of about $73,000 through 162 campaign contributions. Cohn, bolstered by backlash amid Donald Trump’s first year in the Oval Office, handily defeated a Republican slate headlined by incumbent Joe Sack.
During that campaign, Sack’s ticket only managed 55 donations and just under $25,000.
Four years earlier, Sack’s victorious GOP ticket in his first run for mayor, raised $63,000 from 160 contributors. And Republican Douglas French’s Change for Rye slate, which ousted longtime Democratic mayor Steve Otis, banked $47,000 across 162 donors in 2009.
Despite the shaky financial start this cycle, Democratic mayoral candidate Josh Nathan said he’s been encouraged by the “surge” of grassroots support he and his running mates — James Ward, Amy Kesavan, and Marion Anderson — have received.
“We look forward to making our case to Rye voters on the issues that matter most to our city,” he said.
But in a sign that the ticket could be lacking any cohesion, Anderson, the party’s first Black candidate, has chosen to run her campaign — through the Rye City Democratic Committee — separately from the rest of the slate. The committee has roughly $20,350 in the bank, according to chairwoman Danielle Tagger-Epstein.
Although committee leaders have yet to decide how much they will give to Nathan, Ward, and Kesavan, Tagger-Epstein said the goal still “is to get everyone elected.”
To do so, the Democrats will need to capitalize on voter registration numbers that have swung Rye favorably blue in recent years — 4,800 Democrats to 3,008 Republicans. But the large swath of voters (3,746) unaffiliated with any political party could tip the scales in either direction.
McCabe, who told The Record he’ll be launching his McCabe for Mayor website next week, felt his campaign was off to a good start with a lot of road ahead.
“I’m confident that we’ll be able to remain competitive with the two major parties that we know are going to have an overall fundraising advantage,” he said.
McCabe said he had raised an additional $1,000, as of Tuesday. But only one of his contributions had come from inside Rye, according to the July filings.
Councilwoman Julie Souza, a registered Democrat who is no longer affiliated with the local party, donated $1,000 to his campaign. McCabe also loaned $1,000 to his campaign.
Other donations came from as far away as Frisco, Texas, and St. Petersburg, Fla.
The lack of local fundraising, however, didn’t seem to concern the candidate. He has a strategy, McCabe said, that is “really focused on Rye” as the race heats up.
