Funding our races

Over at NY-13 I have been taking a look at fundraising numbers from the Democratic nominee, Frank Barbaro, in 2004 to get a better understanding of how we can fund a race in this district and win. I approached this from the perspective of the New York City political community, but most of these figures we can extrapolate out to the rest of the congressional seats that are in play.

There are 20 Democratic members of Congress from New York state, of those 12 are in New York City. In 2004, 8 of the 20 donated to Barbaro’s campaign, 6 from New York City. Of those twenty only two, Higgins NY-20 and Bishop NY-01 faced a competitive race winning with 51% and 56% respectively and had a dire need to keep their funds and fundraising efforts within their own district. No other members were re-relected with less than 63%. Excluding Higgins and Bishop, the 18 other members of Congress have a combined $7.21 million cash-on-hand.

Outside of NY-13, the next closest election in the city last time around was Rep. Weiner winning with 70%. That leaves NY-13 as the only New York City centric race for our elected candidates and donors to get behind. As opposed to 2004 however, this time they need to actually support our nominee.

In 2004 these members of Congress gave a combined $12,750 to Frank Barbaro’s campaign. $7,000 of that coming from Rep. Rangel's PAC.

Down the political hierarchy, New York City is represented by 22 Democratic State Senators, yet only outgoing State Senator Seymour Lachman (seat currently held by Diane Savino) gave to Barbaro’s campaign. And finally there are 63 Democratic Assembly members in NYC, yet only 7 made a financial contribution to the race. In 2004 New York members of congress, state senators and assembly members combined for a total of $17,900 in donations to Barbaro's campaign.

Winning this seat starts with party discipline from the officials we put in office.

Funding the race, part I
Funding the race, part II

updated: fixed the links