The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Lamont pours another $8.2M into own campaign
Democrat has raised more than $12.7 million so far
Ned Lamont has raised the ante in the race for governor.
The former cable televison executive turned investor put another $8.2 million into his Democratic campaign, according to the latest filings with state election regulators that show he has poured a total of more than $12.7 million of his personal wealth into the bid.
Lamont’s Republican opponent, Bob Stefanowski ,of Madison, raised $1.5 million during the quarter, for a campaign total of $5 million. He has paid out nearly $4.3 million, with only $747,520 available for the last month of the campaign.
The quarterly reports, filed just before the deadline late Wednesday, indicates that Lamont has $5.5 million available for the last month of the campaign. He wrote personal checks for $3.6 million on Sept. 4, followed by $4.6 million on Friday, September 28. The $12.7 million is not reimbursable.
In total, Lamont has raised $12,753.745. In the quarter — July, August and September — Lamont’s campaign received more than $258,000 from individual contributors. Lamont is the great-grandson of a wealthy Wall Street banker, and his wife, Annie Lamont, is a high-performing hedge fund executive.
In 2006, when he won the Democratic U.S. Senate primary over Joe Lieberman, but lost the general election, Lamont spent $17 million of his own money, according to OpenSecrets.org. Lamont spent $9.6 million in his losing primary run for governor in 2010, according to the SEEC.
Lamont’s Republican
this year, Bob Stefanowski of Madison, raised $1.5 million during the quarter, for a campaign total of $5 million. He has paid out nearly $4.3 million, with only $747,520 available for the last month of the campaign.
During the quarter, Stefanowski raised a million dollars from individual contributors.
“Unlike Ned Lamont, Stefanowski did not inherit tens of millions of dollars with which he can attempt to buy the governorship,” said Kendall Marr, the GOP candidate’s campaign spokesman. “Bob is humbled to have earned the support of over 2000 concerned voters who have generously supported his campaign so far.”
Lacey Rose, Lamont’s spokeswoman, said that Stefanowski is relying on the endorsement of President Trump and PACs allied with the Republican governors and other conservatives.
“Bob Stefanowski's extreme tax scheme for Connecticut would raise property taxes in every town across the state, cut education in our schools, slash health care, and eliminate the minimum wage entirely,” Rose said. “Let's be clear: while Ned has more than 5,383 individual contributions -likely a Connecticut record -- with an average donation of $126, Bob Stefanowski is getting millions in funding by Trumpaligned, radical outside groups that want to take Connecticut backwards.”
While his public apopponent
pearances on the campaign have been very few outside of a handful of televised debates and small forums, Stefanowski’s filings indicates a near-daily attempt over the last three months to raise money. Running outside the state’s voluntary public-finance program, Stefanowski got on TV in January with a series of personally financed ads that raised his name recognition and won him the GOP primary in August.
The new campaignfinance filings indicate that Stefanowski has been scrambling for cash. He has held at least 22 fundraising events throughout the state, including three in Greenwich, with one at the exclusive Belle Haven Club, which the campaign rented for nearly $2,000. Another fundraising luncheon was held on Central Park South in New York.
Stefanowski also loaned his campaign an additional $400,000, bringing the total to $2.65 million in personal funds for which the business consultant and former corporate executive is eligible to seek reimbursement. In addition, Change PAC, a political action committee
linked to the Republican Governors Association, has raised a million dollars, as has the Protect Freedom Political Action Committee, a conservative Super PAC.
Oz Griebel, the unaffiliated candidate for governor who is recent days began a radio-advertising effort, has loaned his campaign an additional $76,000, according to the latest quarterly reports Wednesday posted by the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
Griebel, the former director of the MetroHartford Alliance, wrote five checks totaling the $76,000, including $30,000 on July 31. Most recently, Griebel, who on Wednesday was shown to have 11 percent support among voters in the latest Quinnipiac University Poll, wrote a $15,000 check on September 28.
Griebel has loaned his effort $143,500 of the total $387,000 raised. It’s a fraction of what Lamont and Stefanowski have invested. With less than a month before the election, Griebel has $39,000 left, the reports indicate.