Bergstein defends spending in race for 36th District
Dem’s successful bid focused on field operations, communications
GREENWICH — In a race that was arguably competitive for the first time in decades, state Sen.elect Alexandra Bergstein personally invested $280,000 in her campaign this year to represent the 36th District.
The Democrat’s successful bid to oust Republican incumbent L. Scott Frantz focused on field operations and communications. Her efforts to engage voters and gain name recognition included going door-to-door, making phone calls, sending direct mailers, making videos, curating social media posts and encouraging community conversations on the environment and gun policy.
Most of the money was used to pay young people who dedicated their time to those tasks. The strategy paid off: Bergstein became the first Democrat elected in the 36th in 88 years.
“From mid-August to Election Day, we made over 100,000 contact attempts and had over 30,000 conversations with voters either at their door or by phone,” said Bergstein, a Greenwich resident. She also spent every day from May through November traversing her district, which spans Greenwich and parts of New Canaan and Stamford.
Some Republicans balked at the cost of her campaign, which far out- paced spending in previous races in the district.
“This is an obscene amount of money for a race that normally costs about $70,000, and you still don’t have the final week of spending,” said Ed Dadakis, a former chairman of the Greenwich Republican Party who currently represents Greenwich and parts of Stamford and New Canaan on the Republican State Central Committee. “I guess spreading negative lies against your opponent is expensive. There is nothing fiscally responsible with the way Ms. Bergstein escalated the cost of this race.”
But the senator-elect said those insinuating the money made the difference are wrong.
“Money does not buy votes and for anyone to suggest otherwise, is insulting to voters,” Bergstein said. “Voters are intelligent and discerning, but they need to know their options. As a first-time candidate running against an entrenched incumbent, my biggest challenge was name recognition, simply making voters aware of who I am and what I would do as their state senator.”
Most of those hired on Bergstein’s team were young people who grew up in the area, she said, and who were paid stipends for living expenses.
“In addition, we had a few summer interns — college and high school students — who helped with canvassing and received a small stipend because I feel that paying hard-working young people is the right thing to do,” she said.
Most on Bergstein’s team were volunteers, including her co-campaign managers, Susan Vogel, a veteran of many local and state campaigns, and Nichola Samponaro, a former Barack Obama field operation staffer.
“I dedicated over three months almost exclusively volunteering on Alex’s campaign as her co-campaign manager, putting aside much of my personal life and other obligations to help her win,” Vogel said. “It is insulting to me ... for anyone to insinuate that this campaign was won because Alex may have outspent Scott. We won because we had a great candidate with great ideas, an amazing team of people ... and the financing to support a well-thought-out plan that including an incredible ground game ... and strong communications.”
Bergstein attributed her
victory to a volunteer-driven campaign.
“I succeeded primarily because of their energy and effort,” she said of her volunteers. “Money does not buy votes. But learning that your friend is excited about a candidate — that kind of enthusiasm and engagement simply cannot be bought.”
Forgoing public funding through the Citizens’ Election Program, which gives public money to qualified candidates for the General Assembly, Bergstein loaned her campaign committee $ 280,000, according to the latest filing with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. Without soliciting contributions, Bergstein said she raised $31,900 in small individual donations to her campaign.
In the run-up to the election, Bergstein’s campaign spending nearly doubled. The committee spent $123,600 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 28, according to financial filings, adding up to a total of $225,000 in expenditures from the start of the campaign.
Frantz’s campaign spent a total of $130,700, according to financial filings. Also forgoing public funding, he raised a total of $80,000 in private donations.
Frantz, who previously told Greenwich Time that
raising private contributions was an important principle to him, loaned his committee $62,500 in the final leg of the campaign, filings show.
“This time we were forced to respond to a comparatively disproportionate and disappointingly negative self-funded campaign,” Frantz said Friday of the loan. “We decided that it would not be right to ask people to give more money simply because the opposition was spending so much.”
His Democratic challengers in previous campaigns spent far less than Bergstein.
John Blankley spent a total of $111,400 in 2016 and in 2014, Frantz ran only against Green Party candidate Edward Heflin. Democrat Daniel Dauplaise ran a $94,900 campaign against Frantz in 2012. In 2010, Democrat Nancy Barton withdrew her candidacy early in the race. In Frantz’ first election in 2008, his Democratic competitor, Mark Diamond, spent $11,500.
What made this year’s race for the the 36th different was that Frantz’s challenger chose to fund her own campaign.
“In a situation like that, a candidate has the unlimited ability to provide their committee with their own money,” said Joshua Foley, an attorney with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
The Citizens’ Election Program allows qualified state senate candidates to use $95,000 in public funding once they raise $15,000 in private donations, Foley said. When participating in the program, candidates’ spending is capped at about $110,000.
Because Bergstein didn’t opt to use public funding, she was able to spend as much as she wanted, said Foley.
But the claim that campaigns for the state legislature are becoming more expensive is not true, he said.
“I’ve heard many people say independent expenditures may be getting larger and more frequent,” Foley said. “At least for General Assembly races, I haven’t seen that as being a big problem. It’s partly because of the public financing program. It’s done its job in terms of keeping spending level.”
More candidates than ever before — about 80 percent of those on the slate for state office — participated in the Citizen’s Election Program this election cycle, Foley said.
Despite the public funding program, “there will always be some candidates who are independently wealthy and can spend as much as they like — which is their right — and some candidates who blow through the ceiling,” he said.
Spending in the 36th didn’t come close to the amount shelled out in the 33rd District this year, according to financial filings. In that race, Democrat Norm Needleman spent $485,600 to defeat Rep. Melissa Ziobron (R-East Haddam).
Bergstein said her model of investing in grassroots strategies to invigorate voters paid off.
“To illustrate this point, I lost Greenwich by only 970 votes and New Canaan by only 732 votes,” she said. “In the prior state senate election, John Blankley lost both towns by 7,451 and 2,079 votes, respectively. In Stamford, I won by 2,318 votes whereas Blankley lost by 80 votes ... Conclusion: Hard work delivers results.”