Thomas Breen file photos
Democratic candidate Mayor Justin Elicker and Republican challenger Tom Goldenberg.
Mayor Justin Elicker and mayoral challenger Tom Goldenberg both headed into the final month before November’s general election with around $13,000 left in their respective campaign coffers.
That’s just about the only campaign-finance-report similarity between the two candidates, as the incumbent Democrat has pulled in nearly $200,000 more in individual donations than the Republican first-timer over the course of this campaign year — even as Elicker has participated in the public-financing Democracy Fund, and Goldenberg has not.
As for the latest three-month quarter between the start of July and the end of September, Elicker’s campaign raised around $62,000 in individual contributions, while Goldenberg’s raised around $13,000.
Those are some of the numbers included in campaign finance reports filed by the Elicker and Goldenberg campaigns on Oct. 10.
The reports detail how much each candidate’s campaign raised and spent in the three months between July 1 and Sept. 30. (Elicker’s campaign actually filed two different reports in the third quarter: one documenting its finances between July 1 and Sept. 3, as part of a so-called “Seventh Day Preceding Primary” report, and another documenting its finances between Sept. 4 and Sept. 30.)
These reports come a month after Elicker handily won the Sept. 10 Democratic primary against former federal prosecutor and legal aid attorney Liam Brennan, securing his spot as the Democratic (and Working Families Party) nominee on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Goldenberg is running as the Republican and Independent Party candidate for mayor. Wendy Hamilton is running as an unaffiliated mayoral candidate who has petitioned her way onto November’s ballot.
Click here and here to read Elicker’s latest campaign finance reports in full. Click here to read Goldenberg’s latest campaign finance report in full. Hamilton’s campaign is exempt from filing campaign finance reports because it does not intend to raise or spend more than $1,000.
According to Elicker’s latest campaign finance reports, the incumbent mayor raised a total of $62,331.09 in individual contributions between July 1 and Sept. 30. That compares to $13,161.59 in individual contributions raised by Goldenberg during that same time.
That means that, over the course of this year’s campaign, Elicker has raised a total of $289,813.59 in individual contributions, while Goldenberg has raised a total of $90,849.73 in individual contributions.
Elicker also received $32,700 in Democracy Fund grant and matching dollars during that time because of his participation in the city’s public financing program, which requires candidates to cap individual contributions at no more than $445 apiece and to forswear money from political action committees.
Goldenberg, who is not participating in the Democracy Fund and who can therefore solicit individual contributions up to $1,000 apiece, also lent his campaign another $20,000 of his own money during the third quarter.
Elicker’s campaign spent a total of $263,227.32 in the third quarter of this campaign year, while Goldenberg’s campaign spent a total of $45,848.38.
That means that, at the end of the latest three-month reporting period as of Sept. 30, Elicker’s campaign has $13,229.18 left in the bank, while Goldenberg’s campaign has $13,564.08.
The 57 people who maxed out to Elicker’s campaign last quarter by giving $445 each included Peter Newman of Hamden; Gilbert Litalien of Deep River; Barbara Bettigole of Lakeville; Ben Trachten of New Haven; Roy Occhiogrosso of Simsbury; Elizabeth Wilson of New Haven; Joan Elicker Richards of La Jolla, Ca.; Patricia Gerarde of Wethersfield; Thomas Gerarde of Wethersfield; Rian Alfiero of Scarborough, Maine; Helena Brett-Smith of New Haven; Jan Cunningham of New Haven; Gordon Elicker of New Canaan; Stephen Latham of New Haven; Floyd Dugas of Milford; Andrew Metrick of New Haven; Susan Metrick of New Haven; Craig Crews of New Haven; Katherine McKenzie of New Haven; Carolyn Greenspan of New Haven; Marshall Ruben of Wallingford; Amy Wrzesniewski of New Haven; Joseph Crowley of New Haven; Al Gobel of New Haven; Reginald Mayo of New Haven; Jeffrey Alexander of New Haven; Anthony Law of New Haven; Joan Elicker of New Canaan; Wiliam Iovanne of Branford; Norma Rodriguez of New Haven; Patricia King of New Haven; Bruno Massaro of Hamden; George Jones of Hamden; Andrew Crews of New Haven; Deta Reid of New Haven; Manney Reid of New Haven; John Buckley of New Haven; Salvatore Carabetta of Meriden; Edward Fortin of Guilford; Jay Malcynsky of Chester; Philippe De Montigny of Weston, Mass.; Haley Satnick of New York City; Matthew Satnick of New York City; Daniel Derrico of New Haven; Sanford Cloud, Jr. of West Hartford; Michael Evanko of West Chester, Pa.; Ryan Grimme of New York City; Sean McGrath of Philadelphia; Michael Morand of New Haven; Robert Phipps of New Haven; Jay Brotman of New Haven; Gregory Colodner of New Haven; Earle Giovanniello of Orange; Alan Lazowski of Hartford; James Horwitz of Woodbridge; Andy Montelli of Fairfield; Tyler Warren of Dulles, Va.
The six people who maxed out to Goldenberg’s campaign last quarter by giving $1,000 each included Shankar Raman of Great Neck, N.Y.; Nithya Iyer Singh of Weston, Mass.; Albert, Roxanne, and Andy Ackerson of North Haven; Michael Schoenfeld of Glastonbury.
So it cost Elicker about $300K for about 5,000 votes. $60 per vote. Plus he had to sell his soul to Unite Here. Wow. What an expensive election.