WASHINGTON -- Rep.-elect Anthony Brindisi received a flood of last-minute campaign cash in his winning bid to unseat Rep. Claudia Tenney in the 22nd Congressional District, new records show.
Brindisi, D-Utica, raised more than $783,000 from some 32,000 contributions between Oct. 18 and Nov. 26, according to a report his campaign filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission in Washington.
The late burst of donations, topping the amount some candidates raise in a year, pushed Brindisi's fundraising total for the campaign to more than $4.6 million, the records show.
The big infusion of cash allowed Brindisi to spend more than $1 million in the final weeks of his campaign. In the end, he had about $65,000 remaining in his campaign account as of Nov. 26.
Tenney, R-New Hartford, raised less than half of Brindisi's total during the same period (about $298,000) and spent about $671,000 in the final weeks of her campaign, according to a report her campaign filed Thursday with the FEC.
Tenney's post-election report for the latest period, Oct. 18 through Nov. 26, showed she raised a total of about $3.2 million over the course of the election -- about $1.4 million less than Brindisi.
Tenney ended the campaign with $174,665 remaining in her campaign account and debts of about $170,000, according to the FEC reports.
All told, the 22nd District campaign was the most expensive race out of New York's 27 House districts this year.
Independent political groups spent an additional $16 million on both candidates, FEC records show, bringing the combined total spent on the election to almost $24 million -- a record high for a Central New York House race.
The election, one of the most competitive House races in the nation, was too close to call election night, when Brindisi led Tenney by 1,293 votes.
After a count of absentee and affidavit ballots over the following two weeks, it became clear Brindisi won the election by about 4,000 votes, according to unofficial election returns. The state Board of Elections is expected to certify the results on Dec. 14.
Despite his fundraising success, Brindisi has called for campaign finance reform to limit the influence of money in politics. He said the issue will be among those at the top of his agenda next year in the Democratic-controlled Congress.
During the campaign, Brindisi refused to take corporate donations from political action committees, or PACs. He accepted money from non-corporate PACs including labor unions.
The 22nd Congressional District covers all of Madison, Oneida, Cortland and Chenango counties and portions of Oswego, Broome, Herkimer, and Tioga counties.
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