Report: Paladino gave $7.7 million to his own campaign

Carl Paladino, the bombastic Buffalo Republican who lost the governor's race to Andrew Cuomo, spent about $7.7 million of his own money on the campaign, well short of the $10 million he once pledged to invest in his candidacy.

Paladino listed $6.048 million of his spending as an outstanding loan to the campaign and $1.65 million as a direct contribution.

Gov.-elect Andrew Cuomo's campaign had not released its postelection campaign finance spending report Monday. State campaign finance law required a report be submitted to the state Board of Elections by 5 p.m.

The Paladino campaign, which spent $9.54 million during the 2010 primary and general election seasons, paid huge sums to companies owned and controlled by the first-time political candidate, including $470,167 to his Ellicott advertising and development companies and $15,103 to the Paladino-owned Staybridge Suites hotel in the Buffalo suburb of West Seneca.

Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, was paid $492,175 for his work.

In the attorney general's race, GOP Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan spent $1 million in the campaign's closing weeks, bringing his total spending to $2.29 million. Donovan paid $500,000 to campaign manager Bradley Tusk's consulting firm. Tusk also managed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2009 re-election campaign.

State Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan), who defeated Donovan for the post, did not release his report Monday.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who narrowly defeated Republican Harry Wilson in the year's closest statewide election, has a mere $70,255 remaining in his campaign account. DiNapoli, a former Great Neck Estates assemblyman, spent $496,358 in the campaign's waning days, to bring his total expenses to $3.06 million for the year.

DiNapoli's late-campaign contributors included Democratic heavy hitters like father-of-the-governor Basil Paterson ($1,000) and Harold Ickes ($1,000).

Wilson, a former hedge fund executive from Scarsdale, spent $6.96 million on his race, including $3.85 million he loaned the campaign.