Bwaaaaah

I'm Rick's special friend.

In New York, State G.O.P. Finds Campaign Aid Scarce

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: July 10, 2006

A six-month stretch of political fund-raising will end tomorrow for New York candidates, and the results, by all accounts, will be stark: Republicans are struggling, and in some cases competing with one another for cash.

The race for governor should yield a particularly sharp contrast, according to advisers to the two leading candidates. The Democrat, Eliot Spitzer, has about $15 million on hand, his allies say, and that is after spending $10 million on advertising already. The Republican, John Faso, is expected to report having $2 million to $3 million, and he has not advertised since an introductory television spot in February.

But help is on the way for Mr. Faso: Gov. George E. Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani will hold fund-raising events for him, advisers to Mr. Faso say. And William F. Weld, a former rival of Mr. Faso's in the race, has also asked his top donors to help Mr. Faso.

Yet it is unclear whether any of this will stop Mr. Spitzer, who is well ahead of his Democratic opponent, Thomas R. Suozzi, in both fund-raising and opinion polls and who leads Mr. Faso by 50 percentage points in polls. Mr. Suozzi, the Nassau county executive, is expected to report having $1.5 million to $2 million on hand. The leading Democratic candidates for attorney general and comptroller are also expected to have more money than their Republican opponents, political analysts say.

And Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has a war chest that is well into eight figures, while her two Republican rivals are each believed to have only $200,000 or so.

"Hillary is a landslide, Eliot is a landslide, and the only Republican candidates who are easily raising money in New York are Republicans from other states," said John A. Catsimatidis, the New York supermarket chain owner, who usually supports Democrats but who held a fund-raising event on Friday for Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania.

The current fund-raising period is a very important one: It allows candidates to prove their political strength through so-called early money, the donations that campaigns receive well before most voters begin paying attention to races around Labor Day. Donors generally like to give early money as a way to earn chits from grateful candidates, to play the role of political handicapper and to enjoy running with prospective winners.

For the latest season of fund-raising, which began in mid-January, candidates may count money that they receive through tomorrow; all of the donations will be recorded in campaign finance reports that will be made public next Monday.

Why is Catsimatidis raising money for man on Dog Santorum? That's weird. Someone should ask him. If the answer is homophobia, he's gonna have some real issues with the local pols.

Pataki isn't helping much either.

I hope they lose the State Senate as well.