Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)
WASHINGTON – Despite the next federal election being more than a year away, Congressman Tom Reed (R-Corning, NY 23) has already gained a significant amount of funding for his reelection war chest, especially when compared to those who plan to run against him.
Reed’s campaign, Tom Reed for Congress, has raised a total of $1,073,000 between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year.
Of the $1 million contributed to Reed’s campaign, a total of $565,050 came from political action committees. Total Individual contributions to Reed – from both inside and outside the district – totaled $494,155.
According to Tom Reed for Congress campaign manager Nicholas Weinstein, the campaign received an estimated 1200 individual contributions, with 57 percent of them coming from Western New York and another 45 percent coming from within the 23rd Congressional District. However, the total monetary amount that came from within the district compared to outside the district could was not immediately available.
The information comes from the Federal Election Commission, which released data for the first two quarters of the 2017-18 election cycle earlier this month.
REED’S WAR CHESTS OUTPACES OPPONENTS BY 20 to 1 MARGIN
Rick Gallant (left) and Eddie Sundquist, two of several candidates currently vying for the Democratic nomination for the 2018 New York State 23rd Congressional District election
Regardless of the source of Reed’s campaign funding, the fact remains he is significantly outpacing the opposition. For every dollar raised by his potential opponents, Reed has raised more than $20.
There are several individuals who’ve announced they will run against Reed for congress in 2018, but only two have filed with the FEC. They are Rick Gallant (D-Corning), who’s funding totals $28,500 (including a $12,500 loan); and Eddie Sundquist (D-Jamestown), who’s campaign war chest was reported at $19,000 – although $10,000 of that comes from a loan.
The obvious disparity in campaign funding between Reed and his potential opponents didn’t go unnoticed by Weinstein.
“The campaign continues builds off its record breaking first quarter and is continuing to break records for fundraising and grassroots engagement,” said Weinstein in a media release sent out earlier this week. “Tom Reed for Congress is in its strongest position ever, while our opponents are divided and in disarray with seven Democrat candidates already publicly in the race and a long path towards a contested primary.”
Weinstein also points out that similar to Congressman Reed, both Democratic Candidates also saw the majority of their contributions come from outside the district, rather than from within.
During a recent interview with WRFA, Sundquist discussed fundraising and the challenge with running against an incumbent who receives large sums of money from corporate interests. He said his strategy is to continuing grassroots campaigning to county the major amount of funding, and subsequent advertising, from the Reed campaign.
“From our perspective, what we want to do is just get out there, and by getting out there we want to do meet and greets and we’re asking folks to help us do house parties so we can do a little bit of fundraising,” Sundquist said. “Obviously we want to get some fundraising here, because we want a lot of our donations to be from individuals, but there is some fundraising that comes from outside the district as well. People realize this is so important for us to win the race here, because it affects us not only in this district but it also affects us nationally.”
More information about the campaign funding for the 23rd district, along with funding for all other federal elections set to take place in 2018, can be found online at FEC.gov.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this story indicated that Congressman Reed had only received $35,000 in unique individual contributions from within the district for the first two quarters. That number was compiled via the FEC Website by choosing only the cities, towns, villages, and communities within the district. Weinstein correctly pointed out that that data had not yet been updated to reflect the second quarter reporting, nor did it include any donations that came in below $200. As a result, the amount was completely inaccurate and WRFA has removed this erroneous detail from this story.
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