Conservative outside organizations are spending 85 times more than liberal organizations in NY-21.
I live in New York’s 21st Congressional District, currently represented by Democrat Bill Owens, who is retiring. It was the 23rd District when Owens was elected, by there has been redistricting since then. Three candidates are running for Owens’ seat. Aaron Woolf, the Democratic candidate, is endorsed by Bill Owens and also by Charles Schumer. Elise Stefanik is the Republican candidate. And there is also a Green Party candidate, Matt Funicello.
NY-21 congressional district has an adult population of under 600,000. When Bill Owens was first elected, there were about 150,000 votes cast. I don’t know what the expected voter turnout is, now that we are the 21st District.
A lot of PAC money is being spent on this election. I looked at OpenSecrets.org to have a look at how much.
The candidates themselves have raised about 3.7 million dollars, with Woolf a bit ahead of Stefanick, and Funciello having raised about enough to buy a car.
Outside spending on the race is huge.
Conservative organizations are spending nearly 2.4 million dollars, more than either major candidate individually. $2,317,000 of that comes from just four organizations: American Crossroads associated with Karl Rove and Ed Gillespe (see donors), the National Republican Congressional Committee, New York 2014 (see donors; note that their donor list has a lot of the same names on it as American Crossroads), and the US Chamber of Commerce, which does not disclose donors.
Conservative outside organizations are spending 85 times more than liberal outside organizations in NY-21.
Major players in this race seem to be hedge funds such as the Elliot Management Group. Much of the money seems to be traceable to billionairs on this list published by the Huffington Post.
Outside organizations are spending about $4 per adult (not per voter) in the New Yor State North Country to pay for this election. And that’s not including whatever the rich may have donated to individual candidates. In total, more than $10 per adult is being spent here.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of PAC money were spent on the primary to knock Matt Doheny out of the way to make Stefanik her place on the ballot. He has since been nominated for a judgeship and so is not elligible to run against Stefanik as an independent.
Whatever political will either major party might have had in the North Country, it has apparently been strangled by billionaires.
Crossposted to KathrynCramer.com.
