Bellone spent record $3.56M on Suffolk race

Suffolk County Executive-elect Steve Bellone spent a record $3.56 million in his winning bid for the county's top office, nearly five times more than his Republican opponent, Suffolk Treasurer Angie Carpenter.

Bellone, according to last week's 27-day postelection campaign disclosure report, had only $7,416 left in his campaign account as of Dec. 1.

Suffolk Democratic Committee officials said they spent $2 million on Bellone's campaign and on other local candidates, after discounting $500,000 that office-seekers funneled through the committee to get the state party's reduced postal rate.

The committee's filing also shows it has $422,000 remaining, but officials say they will file an amended report showing they have about only $250,000 left because of errors found in the original report.

Suffolk Democratic chairman Richard Schaffer said about $50,000 in campaign bills have yet to be paid.

Carpenter said her campaign spent about $750,000, and her campaign finance filing shows she has $88,523 left. The Suffolk Republican Committee, meanwhile, spent $516,674 on the campaign, including primaries and other candidates. The committee has $10,126 left in its coffers. The Suffolk GOP also listed $31,520 in unpaid bills in its campaign report.

Bellone's total far outpaces the 2003 election of County Executive Steve Levy, who spent $1.14 million in a contest in which his GOP opponent, Edward Romaine, spent $1.43 million. Bellone also spent more than the $2.4 million that former Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi put into his losing 2009 re-election race, after which he still had $2 million left in his campaign coffers.

"It was a monumental effort especially in the atmosphere in which people were questioning whether the Suffolk Democrats were down," Schaffer said. "This answers the question. We're here to stay and we are competitive."

Said Carpenter: "Certainly money played a major role. Even at the last minute when we had some money coming in, we couldn't buy TV time because it was all locked up since they had bought it all."

She also said her late start was a contributor to her election defeat because GOP officials delayed backing her for several months.

"Do I wish I could have started earlier? It was out of my control. Raise more money? It was out of my control," she said.