McMurraysees surgein NY-27 fundraising

The Aug. 8 arrest of U.S. Rep. Chris Collins on insider trading charges made New York-27 one of the most-watched House races in the country, and threw into play a seat that had seemed all but in-the-bag for the Republican party.

The charges against Collins were also, as many predicted, a boon for challenger Nate McMurray’s meager campaign coffers.

McMurray’s campaign announced Monday that it raised over $475,000 in the third quarter — more than 3-1/2 times the amount raised by the campaign in the first six months of the race.

The “vast majority” came pouring in over the seven weeks after Collins was indicted on charges of conspiracy, fraud and lying to investigators, according to McMurray’s campaign. 

“I’m proud to show the party bosses that our grassroots campaign has the resources to go toe-to-toe with special interest dark money and Mr. Collins’ dirty attack ads,” McMurray said in a statement. “We’re only getting started.” 

Collins campaign spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said information on Collins’ campaign finances should be available later this week.

Candidates for federal office are required to submit third-quarter reports, covering the period from July 1 through Sept. 30, to the Federal Election Commission by Oct. 15.

In earlier FEC filings, McMurray reported that his campaign had received $46,276 in the reporting period from June 7 to June 30, and $131,724 throughout the entire campaign as of June 30 (he announced his campaign Jan. 14). After expenses, McMurray’s campaign reportedly had $81,772 on hand.

McMurray said in his Monday statement the campaign would spend the cash on television advertisements that will air soon. Meanwhile, the campaign has rapidly opened offices throughout the district; on Monday, McMurray announced the campaign just opened its seventh district office in Canandaigua.

Still, McMurray’s fundraising is dwarfed by Collins, a Republican from Clarence who remains a favorite to win by most election forecasters.

Collins reported a campaign war chest of $1.34 million in July. He entered the race with over $1 million and raised another $1.102 million throughout the election cycle.

Three days after his arrest, Collins announced he was suspending his campaign for reelection. Then, on Sept. 17, he said he was getting back into the rae, following the advice of his attorneys. Since then, he has dipped into his war chest to keep the seat in GOP hands.

Collins’ campaign launched an ad last month that featured McMurray speaking Korean — a video that McMurray had uploaded to his campaign’s Facebook page in April — and claimed the Democrat “worked to send jobs to China and Korea.”

McMurray blasted the ad as racist and said it misrepresented his Korean ties. After receiving his law degree from Hastings College of Law, McMurray was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study the development of constitutional democracy in Korea. He later taught U.S. law at Judicial Research and Training Institute in Seoul and, in private practice, represented American business interests in Asia, according to his campaign website.

Other commentators, including Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Los Angeles County, Calif., also labeled the ad racist.

Baldassarre dismissed the criticism as “another tired and false attack from anti-Trump, liberal Democrats.”

“Nate McMurray and the Democrats are so embarrassed by his radical policies of lobbying to ship American jobs overseas, that they resort to the only tool in Nancy Pelosi’s playbook — label everything you don’t like as racist or bigoted,” she said.