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By Alex Gault | Watertown Daily Times
The latest campaign finance reports are in, and 21st District Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik has once again dramatically outraised her opponents.
Stefanik took in nearly $1.2 million in the last fiscal quarter, covering April 1 to June 30. Her opponent for the Republican nomination, Jill A. Lochner, raised just $2,702 last quarter, and Steven W. Holden, Sr., a Democrat who ran against Congresswoman Claudia L. Tenney in 2022 but recently declared his candidacy for the 21st Congressional District, has failed to file any financial disclosures for this election cycle.
According to reports filed on July 15, Stefanik has taken in $416,561 from individuals, $156,150 from political action committees and $612,658 in transfers from her other campaign committees and the GOP Battleground fund.
The PAC contributions largely come from large corporate committees, including $1,000 in the last quarter from the employee’s PAC for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which has donated $5,000 to Stefanik this cycle and thousands more over her Congressional career.
Other corporate donors to Stefanik’s campaign include AT&T, Amazon, Raytheon, the Dairy Farmers of America, a number of groups representing doctors and pharmacists, American Express and Wells Fargo. Most have contributed between $2,500 and $5,000 since the start of the election cycle in January. Some, including, defense contractor L3 Technologies contributed the pre-primary maximum of $7,500.
Since the start of the election cycle, Stefanik’s campaign fund has raised $2.5 million, with about $1.12 million coming from other campaign committees including other funds she maintains, like the Elise Victory Fund.
The Congresswoman’s campaign has spent $582,109 in the last three months, and $1.82 million since January, on campaign-related items ranging from cell phone bills and travel costs to marketing, consulting and staff.
Her campaign started April with $1.3 million in available cash, and ended June with $1.8 million.
The Congresswoman’s opponent for the Republican nomination, Saratoga-county native Jill Lochner, has taken in a fraction of the Congresswoman’s election-cycle total. Since announcing her candidacy in May, her campaign has raised $4,641, with many contributions made by the candidate herself.
She’s also provided a $5,000 loan to her campaign, with a due date of July 17, 2024 and an interest rate of 0.0720, equating to roughly $3 to $5 in interest.
She took in $2,702 in contributions in the last three months.
She’s spent a large portion of that money, $3,489 in operating expenses in the last three months and $4,334 since she started her run. Much of those expenses are travel reimbursements paid to herself, as well as marketing materials including shirts, hats and business cards.
Lochner started April with $6,094 in cash on hand, and ended June with $5,307 in available cash.
Steven W. Holden, Sr., the Democratic candidate from Camillus, Onondaga County, who previously ran for Congress against Congresswoman Claudia L. Tenney, has not filed any campaign finance reports this year, and filed an organization statement with the FEC to run for NY-21 on July 7, after initially filing to run in NY-24 against Tenney on June 6. He received a notice on May 3 that he was out of compliance with federal election laws, as he has not filed any financial disclosures since November of 2022.
His listed campaign website connects to a woodworking blog rather than a campaign page, and the candidate did not return a request for comment on Tuesday.
In NY-24, Congresswoman Claudia L. Tenney appears to be running unopposed, although the campaign committee for her opponent in the Republican primary in 2022, Mario Fratto, appears to still be active at least for the purposes of paying back the $50,000 loan he provided to his campaign. He did not return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Tenney has raised about $229,009 in contributions since April 1, and spent about $178,667.
Of that $229,009, about $123,500 came from PAC’s, representing corporations including Morgan Stanley, the National Milk Producers Federation, Lockheed Martin and the National Rifle Association.
Since the beginning of the election cycle, the Tenney campaign has spent about $374,742 on campaign expenses, and has steadily increased the amount of cash she’s had on hand. She started April with $207,084, and ended June with $252,497.
These are the second slate of reports filed for the current election cycle, which will see pre-primary activity for another 11 months until the June primaries, and then 6 months of general election activity until November. More candidates could potentially announce their campaigns before then, and current candidates could drop out in the coming months.
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