Five-figure donations boost Cuomo campaign

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has collected mostly five-figure donations to build a huge campaign fund over the past six months even as he seeks to limit future donations in a campaign finance reform law.

An analysis of new state Board of Election reports by the New York Public Interest Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, shows about 80 percent of Cuomo's donations were for $10,000 or more. That helped him build a midterm campaign fund of $22 million.

Cuomo's total donations for the six-month reporting period of $4 million were down slightly from past periods because many of his big donors hit the current donation limit that Cuomo has said is too high.

In his State of the State speech last week, Cuomo said New York "must enact campaign finance reform because people believe that campaigns are financed by someone else at exorbitant rates. The limits are just too high."-- AP