New York Blade

Campaign Update

Monday, July 24, 2006

The state attorney general candidates are off and running. Mark Green, Charlie King and Sean Patrick Maloney all turned out more than enough signatures to make the Democratic Primary ballot, where frontrunner Andrew Cuomo will round out the four-way race. Somehow, they skipped the usual fight-to-the-death battle over valid signatures. As of press time, no one had submitted a formal challenge. The last day to do so was July 21.

Cuomo still has a commanding lead in terms of money, with $6 million cash on hand. Mark Green took some heat on the blogosphere for raising $700,000 after Maloney’s campaign reported raising $750,000 “this year” (i.e. since Jan. 1, 2006). But technically the reporting period was from Jan. 15 to July 17, and Maloney’s receipts only totaled about $525,000 during that time (still his strongest reporting period so far). Apparently, contributions flood in during the last two weeks of a reporting period, and the campaign had included receipts from the first two weeks of January in its earlier figure.

Jeanine Pirro, the Republican Attorney General candidate, made a strong showing herself with receipts totaling almost $2.8 million, though $600,000 of it was transferred from her former Westchester County district attorney campaign. Judging by the numbers (and the polling) for the other Republicans seeking statewide office, Pirro may be the only Republican who poses a real threat this year.

Anti-war candidate Jonathan Tasini also came up with the signatures necessary to face Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Democratic Primary ballot. Of course, there is the money problem. Clinton has $22 million cash on hand compared to Tasini’s nearly $12,000. Perhaps, Hollywood can give him a boost. The timesunion.com reported that he has three upcoming fundraisers, one of which is being hosted by Susan Sarandon.