Hochul far outpaces Blakeman in campaign fundraising

ALBANY — With four months till Election Day, Gov. Kathy Hochul has $21 million in campaign funds, while Republican rival Bruce Blakeman has $4.6 million, according to recently filed campaign statements.

Hochul, the Democrat running for a second full term, has been stockpiling funds since winning the 2022 election — giving her a huge head start on Blakeman, the Nassau County executive.

The state Democratic Committee also has a massive advantage over its Republican counterpart: $16 million compared to $225,000 , according to reports filed this week with the New York State Board of Elections. State committees use funds for ads, rallies and get-out-the-vote efforts, among other things. 

Hochul's funding

The governor, who has been a prolific fundraiser, reported taking in $5.8 million in donations from individuals, corporations and political action committees since January. She spent $4.9 million, mostly on campaign consulting and workers’ salaries and advertising.

Hochul also helped the state Democratic committee raise nearly $6 million since January. The party also holds another $6.5 million in the Dems' "housekeeping" account, which is supposed to be used for headquarters, staff and other "ordinary" activities but not to promote a candidate.

Combined, Hochul and the state Democratic committees have stocked $44 million as of mid-July.

"Among the governor's skills is fundraising. She knows how to do it," Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic strategist, said. "And the state committee has had a really great run while the Democrats control all the statewide offices and the [State] Legislature. If they didn't raise a lot of money, it would raise questions."

Blakeman's money

Blakeman began raising money in December, when he officially launched his bid to oust Hochul. Since then, he has reported raising around $8.4 million — but only half of it is from donations.

The other half is primarily from financial transfers from the Nassau County Republican Committee ($2.5 million) and from his county executive campaign committee ($825,000), and from public matching funds ($769,000), which are available to gubernatorial candidates for the first time this year.

"For a challenger, that's pretty impressive," Mike Dawidziak, a veteran Republican strategist in Suffolk County, said. 

Incumbents always have a fundraising advantage, but if Blakeman can pull closer in the polls — right now, he's 20 points behind, according to Siena University — "the challenger's money always comes in late" in the campaign, Dawidziak said.

He added that it's standard for a party committee to transfer a lot of money to a candidate — not only to boost the candidate's total and try to impress donors, but also to help down-ballot contests in November.

Compared with the $44 million combined Hochul and Democrats hold, Blakeman and the state Republican committees have a little less than $5 million.

Legislative campaigns

When it comes to state legislative campaigns, Republicans are also behind, though the deficit isn't as steep. Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 combined in the Assembly and Senate.

The Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee this week reported having $4 million in funds compared to $1.3 million for the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee — which actually is a higher total than usual for the Republican assembly committee in July of a campaign year.

On the Senate side, Democrats have nearly $4 million stockpiled, while Republicans have about $1.1 million.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy