The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm spent heavily on James Skoufis and other candidates this fall in what turned out to be a hugely successful bid to boot Republicans from power in a chamber they have ruled for most of the last half-century.
But the campaign finance report filed this week by the New York State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee confirmed that the party gave no money to and bought no ads and mailers for a candidate it clearly underestimated: Jen Metzger, the Rosendale councilwoman who beat Republican Orange County Clerk Annie Rabbitt in the contest to succeed retiring Republican Sen. John Bonacic in the 42nd District.
The filing by its GOP counterpart shows the New York State Republican Campaign Committee gave her opponent financial support, although not a huge amount: it spent $124,674 on campaign materials promoting Rabbitt and gave her campaign $50,000 on Nov. 1, five days before the election. But Metzger was not among the 17 candidate on which Senate Democrats reported spending as much as $617,000.
The two parties invested a lot more in the 39th Senate District race, in which Skoufis, a three-term assemblyman from Woodbury, beat Republican Tom Basile, a Stony Point councilman. This week’s campaign filings show Democrats spent $573,470 on Skoufis and gave his campaign $230,000 on Oct. 30, and Republicans spent $378,593 on Basile and gave his campaign $118,000 on Oct. 24.
