With less than a month to go until Election Day, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) has continued to grow his fundraising lead over his Republican challenger, Dan DeBono, in the race for the 3rd Congressional District, according to recent campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Between the beginning of July and the end of September, Suozzi raised $437,816.32, more than six times as much as the $69,896.88 raised by DeBono over the period. Suozzi raised more over the last three months than DeBono has raised since the beginning of 2017: $381,805.88.
Suozzi has raised about $2.5 million since the beginning of 2017 and currently has $1.78 million on hand. DeBono, meanwhile, has $153,794 on hand — less than half of the total he has raised since the start of last year.
About three-quarters of Suozzi’s $437,000 intake came from individuals. An additional amount, just short of $100,000, came from political committees like PACs.
Of the amount raised, more than $317,000 went toward operating expenditures. About $191,500 went to various consulting services, $13,600 to campaign signs and stickers, $10,000 to printing campaign materials, and $2,000 to robocalls, with much of the rest going to payroll.
DeBono, who has touted his unwillingness to take PAC money, received a majority of his almost $70,000 from individual contributions. He did accept $5,000 from the Majority Committee PAC, the leadership PAC for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the majority leader in the House of Representatives.
DeBono’s operating expenses between July and September were just over $100,000. About $21,000 went to consulting, $12,900 toward yard signs, $9,000 to social media and $4,845 to voter phone calls.
Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-Garden City) raised $126,069 and spent $281,147 in the most recent filing period, and has $695,216 on hand. Her opponent, Republican Ameer Benno, did not have a quarterly report posted on the FEC website.
Two Long Island Republicans — Rep. Peter King of Seaford and Rep. Lee Zeldin of Shirley were outraised by their Democratic challengers over the last three months. Liuba Grechen Shirley raised $1.3 million to King’s $203,000 while Democrat Perry Gershon raised $1.3 million to Zeldin’s $730,000.
But both King and Zeldin had significantly more money on hand than their challengers. Zeldin has $1.8 million to Gershon’s $535,000. And the $2.8 million King has one hand is 10 times as much as Shirley’s $274,000.
Reach reporter Luke Torrance by email at ltorrance@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516-307-1045, ext. 214, or follow him on Twitter @LukeATorrance.
