Intake, Outgo: Candidates Report Campaign Funding
The campaign funds of the two House of Representatives hopefuls in the First Congressional District are within spitting distance of each other, according to the most recent reporting.
From Jan. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, Zeldin for Congress, a fund-raising committee backing the Republican incumbent, Representative Lee Zeldin, raised just over $4 million for his re-election effort.
Perry Gershon, a first-time candidate, raised more than $3.7 million via Perry Gershon for Congress, which booked its first contribution in July 2017.
Mr. Gershon, a Democrat, was his campaign’s biggest backer, loaning or giving it outright more than $1.3 million.
Mr. Zeldin, an Army veteran, entered Congress in 2015, after defeating Democratic Representative Tim Bishop. His opponent, Mr. Gershon, is a commercial real estate lender with a house in East Hampton whose business career began with a Manhattan sports bar he opened shortly after graduating from Yale in 1984.
Votesane, a political action committee based in Alexandra, Va., gave the most to the Zeldin campaign, $71,000, early this year. Among his other big donors were Miriam and Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas, who each gave the maximum individual amount of $5,400. The Manhattan billionaire John Catsimatidis and his daughter, Andrea, each also gave the maximum.
Also contributing the maximum to Mr. Zeldin’s effort were former Metropolitan Transportation Agency chairman Peter S. Kalikow and two of his family members; Andy Sabin of Amagansett, Daniel Loeb of Third Point, a $10.8 billion hedge fund currently battling for control of the Campbell Soup Company, and Steven Schwartzman, the chairman of the $35 billion Blackstone Group.
In East Hampton, donations of more than $1,000 to the Zeldin committee came from Edward and Pamela Pantzer, Joseph McBride, and the late Ben Krupinski.
Among Mr. Gershon’s top donors were people from a range of professions, none of them, however, as well known as Mr. Zeldin’s. They included Katharine Rayner of East Hampton, Donald S. Sussman of the Paloma Funds, and Terrence Fancher of Stockbridge Capital.
In terms of spending, Mr. Gershon’s team reported greater expenses in the latest filing, about $3.2 million to the Zeldin committee’s $2.6 million.
Perry Gershon for Congress listed about $1 million in advertising buys and about $420,000 in payments to various consultants and strategists. Just over $310,000 went to mailer printing and postage. Payroll and related expenses totaled about $159,000.
Mr. Zeldin’s single greatest expense was more than $31,000 for a secondhand Suburban to use as a campaign vehicle bought from Chevrolet 112 in Medford in January. Gas expenses incurred by his committee were more than $7,600.
Ali Dakich, Mr. Gershon’s press secretary, said that her boss had driven more than 37,000 miles in his own Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, during his two-year campaign.
The Zeldin organization spent just over $525,000 on direct mail printing and postage through the end of last month and about $109,000 on staff. Marissa Powell, the campaign’s finance director, received payments totaling $50,000 since April, the most of any of Mr. Zeldin’s re-election team.
His campaign spent about $3,800 on Uber rides and about $47,000 on airfare and hotels, not counting about $900 in in-flight Wi-Fi charges and $260 in Jet Blue priority seating.
Mr. Gershon’s campaign travel line was $6,400. There were no Uber charges listed.
About $170,000 was given to the Zeldin campaign by the 170 donors listed with addresses in the 119 ZIP code area. Excluding members of his own family, Mr. Gershon had contributions in the 119 ZIP code from 26 people, about $15,600 in all.