The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stefanowski turns to fundraising
Finance report shows self-funded coffers are low
Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate who didn’t apply for the state’s public financing system, shamed his Republican competitors for using it and spent millions of his own money on an expensive preprimary television campaign, may be running out of money.
In a plea to potential contributors, his wife said Stefanowski’s newest ad could be pulled off the air if he doesn’t raise $10,000 by Monday night. “This is a crucial moment for the campaign, and we just can’t afford to be off the airwaves,” Amy Stefanowski wrote. “That is why I’m personally asking you to make a donation to help us with this. Meeting this $10,000 goal means staying on the air and reaching 100,000 voters with our winning message.”
Stefanowski spent nearly $200,000 since Aug. 27 on television ads.
They are slated to stop running by Sept. 14, a Hearst Connecticut Media review of the campaign’s spending on WTNH, WFSB and Fox 61 showed. Stefanowski has not advertised on NBC since the primary.
“Bob is prepared to put in as much as it takes to win,” Kendall Marr, the campaign’s spokesman, said.
Stefanowski’s pre-primary campaign relied heavily on TV advertisements, which began airing long before any of his competitors and gave him name recognition that helped him secure a victory.Running as a political outsider, he skipped the convention process, which also means he may have bypassed many of the typical donors.
According to his most recent campaign finance report, Stefanowski has loaned his campaign $2.3 million and raised about $600,000 more. But as of Aug. 9, the most recent available report, his campaign had just $116,927 on hand and roughly $75,000 in unpaid expenses.
Unless he picks up the pace on fundraising or is prepared to dip further into his personal coffers, the drought could put Stefanowski at a financial disadvantage against Democrat Ned Lamont, a telecommunications magnate and multimillionaire from Greenwich, who is funding his own campaign.
Outside help
Though Stefanowski said repeatedly that he would be funding his own campaign, outside groups are already stepping up.
A $1,000-a-plate luncheon is scheduled for Wednesday at the famed Belle Haven Club in Greenwich, said Ed Dadakis, former Greenwich Republican Town Committee chairman. Republican National Committeewoman Leora Levy, who lives in Greenwich, is one of the organizers, and is also organizing a second fundraiser for Stefanowski this week.
In addition, the Republican Governors Association has invested in the race through a Political Action Committee supporting Stefanowski called “Change PAC.”
“We’re not worried,” said Jon Thompson, spokesman for the association. “I think it’s a team effort between the campaign and the Republican Governors Association. At the end of the day, he’s going to have enough money when you factor in all efforts.”
Ronald Schurin, an associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, said that Stefanowski’s financial woes combined with a lack of name recognition could be detrimental.
“Stefanowski is not well known,” Schurin said. “Only a minority of Republicans actually voted in their party’s primary and he got only 29 percent of them. So for him, especially, not to be out on the air between now and the end of September when an impression of him will be formed ... it’s a big disadvantage, especially against Lamont who is already better known.”
Lamont spent about $2.6 million on his primary campaign to beat Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. But he spent ten times that, a combined $26 million, on his 2006 U.S. Senate campaign and his 2010 campaign for governor, which he lost to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.