WASHINGTON – The April 30 special election in New York’s 26th Congressional District looks like a mismatch based on party enrollment alone, given that Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-to-1 in the Buffalo-based territory long represented by then-Rep. Brian Higgins.
But the race is even more of a financial mismatch.
State Sen. Tim Kennedy of Buffalo, the Democratic candidate, raised $1.7 million and spent nearly $1 million of it as of April 10, federal campaign finance data shows. Meanwhile, his Republican opponent, West Seneca Town Supervisor Gary Dickson, raised only $35,431 and spent $21,069 on his race.
In other words, in a race in which he is heavily favored, Kennedy is outspending Dickson by a rate of 47-to-1.
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That probably comes as no surprise to Buffalo-area residents who have seen one TV ad after another touting Kennedy, but the candidate’s prolific fundraising and big spending do pose a question.
Why?
“Voting in April is not typical and work has to be done to inform residents about the special election and what’s at stake for the people of Western New York,” answered Adam Fogel, Kennedy’s campaign manager, in a statement. “It is important that the voters have the opportunity to understand who Tim Kennedy is, what he stands for and his vision for the future of our community.”
Dickson noted that Kennedy’s big spending out of his federal campaign account came on top of more than $200,000 in spending out of his state account late last year as well as a number of recent taxpayer-funded mailers from his State Senate office. WKBW reported this week that Kennedy had sent out 12 of those mailers in the first three months of this year, compared to 13 for all of 2023.
“Against somebody in a deep blue district, against somebody who is not well-known, it’s just kind of puzzling,” Dickson said.
As for his own small-budget campaign, Dickson said: “I’m not focused on fundraising. We’re focused on getting the the message out, and certainly, money contributes to that. But I think we’re running a nontraditional campaign: lots of social media, radio ads will start, as much free media as we can get.”
Kennedy, in contrast, is flooding the airwaves and mailboxes of metro Buffalo with advertising. His campaign finance report shows he has spent $669,364 on advertising this year as of April 10, making that by far his biggest expenditure.
Because he did most of his individual fundraising through ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising behemoth, Kennedy also spent $15,830 on credit card fees. That’s three-fourths of what Dickson spent on his entire campaign.
The federal figures show that Kennedy raised 22% of his funds – a total of $369,100 – from political action committees. He got $5,000 each from labor union PACs representing autoworkers, boilermakers, letter carriers, transport workers, sheet metal workers, communications workers, firefighters, steelworkers, airline pilots, machinists, police and plumbers. PACs representing a range of business interests – from construction companies to beer wholesalers to anesthesiologists – also contributed to Kennedy.
Most notably of all, Kennedy received $12,196 for the special election from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, along with another $5,000 for the June 25 primary.
Those donations at a time when Israel faces accusations of genocide – and sharp criticism from the far left – for its attacks on Gaza, which followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that claimed more than 1,160 lives.
Asked about AIPAC’s support of Kennedy, Fogel referenced a March statement that Kennedy gave to The Buffalo News, which said: “I have consistently supported the State of Israel and its right to defend itself. I stand with the Biden administration in calling for an immediate temporary cease-fire to allow for the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza and a much-needed influx of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian civilians who have endured immeasurable suffering. The United States must work to create a lasting peace for the people of the region.”
Nate McMurray, Kennedy’s Democratic prospective primary opponent, said he was shocked that Kennedy got so much money from AIPAC.
Years ago, McMurray said, he met with AIPAC only to find its views on the Palestinian issue and Iran were too extreme for his tastes. “I was like: ‘I can’t be aligned with these people,’ “ McMurray said.
Plenty of people seem happy to be aligned with Kennedy, however. While his list of donors includes a familiar and bipartisan list of Buffalo-area business leaders such as Gerald Buchheit and Ronald Benderson, Kennedy also got maximum $3,300 contributions from surprising sources such as “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, Loews Corp. CEO Jonathan Tisch and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
“Tim is proud of his strong record of accomplishments throughout his career – whether that’s bringing historic levels of transportation and infrastructure funding to Western New York, investing in education, or enshrining abortion rights and other protections into the state constitution,” Fogel said. “He’s humbled and grateful for the overwhelming support for his campaign to represent our region in D.C. – support that crosses the aisle and includes labor and business leaders.”
Kennedy and Dickson are facing off in a special election for the remaining term of Higgins, who resigned in February to become president and CEO of Shea’s Performing Arts Center. That election will take place in the exact district in which Higgins won re-election in 2022, although the State Legislature redrew the lines slightly for the fall 2024 election in which the Kennedy-Dickson winner will run for a full two-year term.
McMurray’s federal campaign report showed that as of March 31, he had raised only $22,389 for his planned primary campaign against Kennedy. McMurray spent $21,000 of that money to hire Transformative Solutions & Consultation LLC to collect signatures to get the candidate on the primary ballot. Kennedy and a local voter recently filed a lawsuit questioning the validity of many of those signatures.
In Western New York’s other congressional races:
- Rep. Claudia Tenney enjoys a huge cash advantage over both her Republican primary opponent, Geneva lawyer and businessman Mario Fratto, and her prospective Democratic opponent in the fall, former Brockport Village Trustee David Wagenhauser. In her race for re-election in New York’s 24th District – which stretches from Niagara County to Watertown – Tenney had spent $1.1 million on her re-election and still had $668,061 left in her campaign account as of March 31. Fratto had spent only $33,605 but had $472,475 left in his account, thanks largely to personal loans he made to his campaign. And Wagenhauser spent a mere $3,939 and had $11,330 left in his campaign account at the end of the first quarter.
- Rep. Nick Langworthy, a Niagara County Republican, spent $331,965 and had $822,735 remaining as of March 31 in his bid for a second term representing New York’s 23rd District, which includes southern and eastern parts of Erie County along with much of the Southern Tier. His prospective Democratic opponent, Fredonia retiree Tommy Carle, had not yet filed a statement of candidacy or a financial report with the Federal Election Commission as of March 31.