ALBANY — Despite the sustained attacks on Washington Republicans by Gov. Cuomo and other top state Democrats, federal filings show the state GOP actually outraised the New York Democratic party in 2017.
The two state parties each have federal accounts. According to the latest filing, the New York Republican federal account received a total of $1.9 million in contributions in 2017, including $756,000 from individuals.
The party has more than $622,000 on hand heading into the 2018 election year.
Meanwhile, the state Democratic committee’s federal account raised $1.15 million, including just $91,000 from individuals during the same time period. The Dems finished the year with about $265,000 on hand.
State GOP spokeswoman Jessica Proud said the fundraising advantage “positions us well for our congressional battles this year.”
“It’s embarrassing the Democrats have every statewide office and the governor even did his (public relations) tour with (House Democratic Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi and we still outraised them, which positions us well for our congressional battles,” Proud said.
She also revealed that donations to the Republican’s state account are at their highest levels since Chairman Ed Cox took over in 2009.
In all, the state Republican Party on Tuesday will report having raised a total of $6.5 million in 2017, an off election year, after having raised $8.5 million in 2016.
That’s up considerably from the $5.1 million the party raised in the last gubernatorial election year in 2014 and $3.9 million in 2015, the last off-election year.
But Democratic Party officials say that in addition to raising $1.15 million for its federal account, the Dems in July also reported having received $1 million through its state “housekeeping” account that will be used for Cuomo’s “New York Fights Back” campaign targeting six House Republicans this year.
Most of those contributions came from major unions.
While the money donated to the state party housekeeping account cannot be used directly on campaigns, it can be used as part of the coordinated House effort for things like polling, field work, issue advocacy, and digital and grassroots organizing, officials said.
State Democratic Party Executive Director Geoff Berman said the combined $2 million will help “toward turning these red congressional seats blue, and taking the first steps to reverse the damage done to New York by Trump’s Washington enablers.”
“But let’s be clear — no amount of money is going to save these Congress members, who turned their back on their own constituents, raised their taxes, and conspired to take away their health care,” Berman said.
The six targeted GOPers are Reps. Lee Zeldin (Suffolk County), John Faso (Columbia County), Elise Stefanik (Essex County in the Adirondacks), Claudia Tenney (Oneida County), Tom Reed (Steuben County in the Southern Tier) and Chris Collins (Erie County).
BY KENNETH LOVETT
