A late boost in fundraising could not help Richard Stiek (R-Port Washington) catch state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) at either the bank or the ballot box, according to the campaign season’s last batch of financial filings
Financial reports show that Schimel had raised $213,000 to Stiek’s $18,100 leading up to Schimel’s 60 percent to 40 percent election-day drubbing of Stiek.
And though Stiek managed to outraise Schimel during the last reporting period, Schimel outspent him over the final stretch of the campaign, drawing from her sizable war chest to purchase media and make donations to Democratic party organizations.
Stiek raised $6,110 from Oct. 23 through the election on Nov. 6, including a $100 individual donation on the day of voting. His comparatively strong performance, taking in about one third of his total fundraising over the last two weeks before the election, was largely due to a single maxed-out donation from an individual in Port Washington. The Town of North Hempstead Republican Committee also chipped in $1,000.
The New York State Pistol and Rifle Association was another late contributor, giving Stiek $250. Schimel has made no friends in the state’s gun lobby in her tenure as an assemblywoman, championing microstamping and pushing safety regulations for guns as a core position in her campaigns.
Schimel took in just $1,054 between Oct. 23 and election day, including $500 from the North Hempstead Democratic Committee. She raised another $1,050 on Nov. 6 itself, and then another $1,900 in the weeks after the vote.
One of her election-day benefactors was Sutton Stogies, a Midtown cigar shop. Schimel has become an unlikely hero for the state’s cigar retailers, fighting for a bill to cap the state’s tobacco tax at $1 per cigar sold.
Retailers and trade groups say the tax prices local sellers of premium cigars out of competition and encourages under-the-table importation from other states. Schimel said in an October interview she became involved with the issue to protect small business after hearing about it from friends and fundraisers Bradley Gerstman and David Schwartz, who run the lobbying firm Gotham Government Relations.
But in spending, Schimel kept her advantage.
The incumbent spent $13,000 in the latest reporting period before election day, including a $7,000 contribution to the North Hempstead Democratic Committee and over $2,000 in print advertising.
After the election, she spent an additional $4,900, according to election records.
Schimel’s campaign cut a $2,000 check to Manhattan-based consulting firm The Advance Group, which did communications work for the campaign.
Stiek cut a $4,000 check to CCC Enterprises for campaign literature four days before the election.
CCC Enterprises, which lists its address as a private home in Deer Park and is registered as an limited liability company at a P.O. box in Great Neck, is a hub for state Republican campaign spending.
GOP candidates and committees, both within Nassau County and at the state level, have spent over $1 million on mailers, campaign literature and print advertising at the company since 2009, according to campaign filings.
Stiek spend another $3,400 after the election, including wages for campaign staff.
