Schumer's campaign fund rises to $19.4 million
Sen. Charles Schumer talks on the phone. (Dec. 13, 2009) Credit: AP
WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer's poll numbers may have slipped recently, but his campaign fundraising remains strong.
The senior Democratic senator from New York has $19.4 million in cash to battle anyone who steps up to challenge him this year, Schumer's latest Federal Election Commission filing shows.
In the last three months of last year, Schumer reported he raised $2.9 million in contributions from individuals and political action committees. Overall last year, he collected $9.8 million in contributions.
In 2004, Schumer raised $24 million, and had $10 million left over after he waltzed to re-election with 71 percent of the vote.
Recent polls show Schumer's job approval rating dipping - the Marist Poll put it below 50 percent in a decade low - but no one is officially running against him yet.
Schumer appears to be taking nothing for granted.
He held a fundraiser at a Capitol Hill restaurant this week, hitting up individuals for $500 to $2,400 and political action committees for $1,000 to $2,500.
But Schumer is also spreading the campaign-fund wealth through his leadership political action committee, IMPACT.
During the last three months of last year IMPACT raised $88,500, almost all of it from industry and labor PACs.
Through IMPACT, Schumer doled out $35,000 to Democrats in tough races.
That included $10,000 to the victorious Bill Owens in upstate New York's 23rd District, $10,000 to losing Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley, and $5,000 to the Nevada State Democratic Party to help embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
And in December, IMPACT gave $10,000 to Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), whose re-election is being targeted by Republicans and Tea Party members.
Meanwhile, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's official FEC filing shows she raised $1.6 million in the final quarter of last year, and had $5.1 million in cash on hand.
Her potential rival Harold Ford Jr., the former Tennessee congressman and current Merrill Lynch executive, has not formed an exploratory or campaign committee.
Out East: Mecox Bay Dairy, Kent Animal Shelter, Custer Institute & Observatory and local champagnes NewsdayTV's Doug Geed takes us "Out East," and shows us different spots you can visit this winter.
Out East: Mecox Bay Dairy, Kent Animal Shelter, Custer Institute & Observatory and local champagnes NewsdayTV's Doug Geed takes us "Out East," and shows us different spots you can visit this winter.
