The Fray

Democratic congressional challenger Sean Eldridge raised $70,000 more than incumbent Republican Chris Gibson in the first quarter of 2014.

Eldridge raised about $520,000 from January to March — $250,000 of it his own money — and closed with almost $1.6 million in cash on hand; Gibson raised $459,000 and closed with $1.23 million.

Gibson, a Republican from Kinderhook, is running for a third term representing a district that now includes Ulster and Sullivan counties. The race in the 18th Congressional District is expected to be close; the Rothenberg Political Report has it as a tossup but leaning Republican.

Both candidates have tried to make an issue of where their opponent gets their money. Gibson has accused Eldridge, with his personal wealth and self-funding ability — he has put $965,000 of his own money into the race so far — of trying to “buy” the seat; his campaign’s press release Tuesday highlighted that 85 percent of Gibson’s first-quarter contributions came from individuals and two-thirds live in the district.

Gibson spokeswoman Stephanie Valle said that she expects they’ll be outspent.

“While we know our opponent will continue to use his billion dollar fortune to try and buy this election, our strong local support cannot be matched,” she said. “Our campaign gathered 5,000 more signatures than our opponent to appear on the ballot and has raised more local money.”

(Note: Eldridge, while certainly wealthy, is not a billionaire, his campaign has said.)

Eldridge said Tuesday that more than 75 percent of his first-quarter contributions were in amounts of $50 or less. (Much of it came through ActBlue, a PAC that Democratic candidates nationwide use to raise money online.) He said his campaign, unlike Gibson’s, refuses to take contributions from corporate political action committees, and discloses every contribution regardless of size.

“The support we’re getting from across the district shows that New Yorkers want new leadership, and I’m proud that we’re running a different kind of campaign,” Eldridge said. “Unlike Congressman Chris Gibson, we publicly disclose every contribution we receive and we refuse to accept money from corporate PACs that have too much power in Washington already.”

UPDATE: Maloney raised $470,000 and closed with almost $1.6 million in cash on hand. Both of their reports are now available on the FEC’s website.

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Nan Hayworth and Sean Patrick Maloney might face each other in a primary for the Independence line, but it looks like Hayworth’s got the Republican line sewn up now.

Andre Barnett, a businessman and former soldier from Poughkeepsie, also filed for the GOP congressional line in New York’s 18th Congressional District — but his petitions got there on April 14, and they had to be there by April 11.

The Board of Elections will make the final determination at their meeting at the end of the month, but this certainly appears to be a prima facie defect that would disqualify his petitions.

Maloney, the incumbent Democrat, beat Hayworth for the seat in the 2012 elections. Hayworth is seeking to take the seat back.

Maloney and Hayworth also both made their first-quarter campaign finance filings Tuesday. Hayworth raised $281,822 and ended March with $662,582 in cash on hand, according to the Federal Elections Commission report. Maloney seems to have had a better quarter — he put out a press release saying he raised $470,000 during the same time. (As of this writing, Maloney’s report isn’t on the FEC website yet; the numbers are for Hayworth, but not the itemized contributions, so I can’t analyze them further at the moment.)

Also on Tuesday, political prognosticator Stu Rothenberg changed his assessment of the 18th from “Democrat Favored” to “Currently Safe for Democrats.”

“By the numbers, New York’s 18th District isn’t solid-blue Democratic territory,” he wrote. “But at this stage of the cycle, GOP optimism about defeating Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney is very low. And that lack of enthusiasm could indicate that former Rep. Nan Hayworth, a Republican, won’t get much financial support from outside groups for the stretch run this fall.”

Rep. Chris Gibson has filed slightly more than 11,000 petition signatures to the State Board of Elections to qualify for the Republican, Conservative and Independence party ballot lines, his campaign announced Wednesday.

Gibson, R-Kinderhook, is looking to get reelected in the 19th Congressional District.

Gibson’s campaign says it’s submitted about 8,081 signatures of the Republican line, 1,009 for the Conservative line and 1,940 for the Independence line.

“Today’s strong showing demonstrates the breadth of support for our reelection efforts and my ability to unite voters across the political spectrum in our district and in Congress,” said Gibson in a release accompanying the announcement.

Gibson is facing off against Democrat Sean Eldridge, from Shokan, who’s campaign said earlier this week said it filed nearly 6,000 signatures for the Democratic ballot line.