When state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) eked out an unexpectedly narrow re-election victory against challenger Daniel Ross (D-Manhasset) in the 7th state Senate district, he did so with the help of a major fundraising advantage.
But the most recent campaign finance reports show that Ross’ uphill messaging battle may have been, in part, self inflicted.
Though Ross had loaned his campaign $85,000, he spent no money on advertising in the weeks before the election, according to campaign filings – a decision Ross attributes to a change in strategy following Hurricane Sandy.
“We were saving a lot of our efforts for the last couple days, the last week. We had the storm, and we had people not really focused on the race,” Ross said. “We decided not to throw money in places where we knew it would not get much attention.”
Ross said the lack of pre-election spending was a matter of “appropriateness” in campaigning after the storm.
Ross spent $3,500 on printing and lawn signs shortly after jump-starting his campaign with a $10,000 personal loan earlier in the campaign.
But as the election neared, Ross did not continue spending, despite lending his campaign another $75,000 in October.
The result was that in a race decided by a few thousand votes, Ross, a first-time Senate candidate, ended the campaign with tens of thousands of dollars in his account. Martins won with 48,305 votes, representing 52 percent of the vote, against 44,707 votes, or 48 percent, for Ross, according to initial results.
Ross said he did not want to second guess his campaign strategy and that the decision to refrain from advertising in the wake of Hurricane Sandy was the right thing to do.
“I’m not one of the kind of people to say I wish I’d done this, I wish I’d done that,” he said.
Though Ross was endorsed by the state and Nassau County Democratic parties, he received no financial support from party committees.
Aside from personal loans, Ross received $891 in contributions over the course of the campaign, compared to nearly $650,000 for Martins.
In the last two weeks of the campaign, Ross took in $115. The challenger’s biggest contributions came after the voting was over. Ross reported $2,700 in contributions on or after election day, including a $500 donation from the North Hempstead Democratic Committee.
Ross’ statements on the state of his finances during the campaign were inconsistent with the financial reports, which Ross attributed to pledged donations that never came through.
He told Blank Slate Media in October that he had raised $125,000 from business and individuals, and that those figures would be reported in future campaign filings. They never were.
Ross said that donors had committed to funding specific media buys, but pulled out when the campaign decided to hold its fire until right before election day.
“I had received pledges from various donors for thousands upon thousands,” said Ross. “As we changed our strategy, people who had committed and would have put in more dollars for different efforts would not do so.”
Martins took in $12,500 from Oct. 23 through election day, including $1,700 from the New York Trial Lawyers Association’s political action committee.
He also received a series of donations ranging from $100 to $1,000 from beverage companies, the largest being a $1,000 contribution from Buffalo-based Beverage Inc.
Martins hosted a meeting this summer with lobbyist Steve Malito and board members of the Metro Package Store Association and attended a reception for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Center) hosted by the Metro Package Store Association, according to postings on industry news site BeverageMedia.com.
Ross, an car dealership manager, had previously run an unsuccessful campaign for Manhasset-Lakeville Fire Commissioner, and plans on seeking office again in the future.
“My mind is certainly on running again… whether I won or lost it wasn’t going to be a one time thing,” Ross said.
Martins unseated Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) in a hotly contested 2010 race. Before becoming a senator, Martins served as mayor of Mineola.
The 7th State Senate District includes Great Neck, New Hyde Park, the Willistons, Mineola, Roslyn, Port Washington, Westbury, Elmont and parts of Hicksville and New Cassell.
