Joe Morelle rebuffs embattled developer Robert Morgan, vastly outspends opponents in House race

In the race to replace the late Louise Slaughter, Joseph Morelle's opulent warchest is buoyed by a who's who of area CEOs, and a litany of unions, lawyers, bankers, lobbyists and developers — save one.

Morelle took in but since refunded an $1,800 donation from embattled local real estate magnate Robert Morgan, records show.

"Given what's going on right now, it's not appropriate," Morelle said.

Morelle, the state Assembly Majority Leader, recorded Morgan's donation on April 27, and refunded it on June 6, the cutoff for campaign finance reports filed in advance of the June 26 Democratic primary. In the interim, the FBI searched Morgan Communities' offices, and a federal grand jury indicted Morgan's son and nephew on fraud charges.

Morelle otherwise reported nearly $630,000 in donations. The total far exceeds that of other candidates in the upcoming June 26 Democratic primary.

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Candidate Robin Wilt, a Brighton Town Board member, has raised $51,000, putting up nearly half of that money herself, records show. Rachel Barnhart, a former broadcast journalist and founder of the citizens watchdog group Rochester for All, reported raising $18,850. Adam McFadden, vice president of Rochester City Council, has raised $11,000.

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Morelle also is outspending his opponents 3-to-1 combined, including nearly $56,000 on online advertising and $53,500 on polling. And he still has more cash on hand, reportedly carrying $481,000 into the final days of the campaign is — nearly four times that of Wilt, Barnhart and McFadden taken together. 

"I do not think that money wins elections," Wilt said, pointing to Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren's 2013 primary upset of then-Mayor Thomas Richards, despite being vastly outspent. "Lovely turned out the vote. And we have a very strong grassroots game."

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For his part, Morelle is focused not just on the primary but the general, where Republican neurosurgeon Dr. James Maxwell awaits.

"The Republican candidate wrote himself a half-million-dollar check," Morelle said of Maxwell, who has loaned $470,000 to his campaign and raised $188,000, records show. To win in November, "you can't do that without resources.

"I wish there was a different system. I wish there was public financing."

Morelle's donor list includes CEOs Danny Wegman, Jeffrey Clarke and Antonio M. Perez, currently and formerly of Eastman Kodak Co., Ursula Burns, formerly of Xerox, Richard Sands with Constellation Brands, and Giovanni "John" LiDestri of LiDestri Foods.

There also is  political powerbroker and former U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, State University of New York board chairman H. Carl McCall, Nazareth College President Daan Braveman, Tom Battley, executive director of New York Photonics, and Brian Prince and Dominick DeLucia, who more than a decade ago brought a high-speed ferry to Rochester.

One of every $3 in donations Morelle received came from PACs and other political committees, records show, many of those tied to other candidates, to unions or health care/health insurance providers but also including the Congressional Black Caucus. 

Wilt, Barnhart and McFadden's contributors were smaller in number, public stature and amounts given.

Since the filing cutoff, Barnhart said her campaign has raised an additional $10,000 with the assistance of Emily's List, a Washington, D.C.-based PAC that works to elect pro-choice Democratic female candidates and has publicly stated a desire to have a woman succeed Slaughter. The group has not endorsed in the race but sent a representative to Rochester versed in campaign finance, Barnhart said, helping her raise from her own network and from outside Rochester.

"When you talk about running against the establishment, it's not just running against someone who has the party backing," she said. "It's also running against someone who controls a lot of the money in town."

BDSHARP@Gannett.com