Tuesday's campaign fundraising disclosure by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D.) revealed some last-minute gamesmanship to drive down his average donation size, including one man who made 67 separate $1 donations.
Cuomo has long faced criticism for his reliance on large donations to create his formidable war chest, particularly from his far-left Democratic primary opponent Cynthia Nixon. Mindful of that, The New York Times reports, Cuomo has scrambled to find small donors, like offering a chance to win Billy Joel tickets with a donation or advertising an unlimited-drinks Manhattan happy hour for $5.
Donor Christopher Kim, who shares the same address on his filing as Cuomo campaign aide Julia Yang, gave 69 times in the final days before the deadline, and 67 of them were for just $1 apiece. The maneuvering helped drive down the average donation amount made to Cuomo.
"We appreciate his enthusiasm," said Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins. "Going forward, we’ll put measures in place to count contributions like this differently."
The Nixon campaign ripped Cuomo's efforts as "pathetic" and accused him of running an "AstroTurf" campaign, a derisive term accusing a politician of faking grassroots support.
"The pathetic, transparent efforts by the governor’s staff (and their roommates) to increase his number of small dollar contributions shows just how little public enthusiasm there is for Andrew Cuomo," campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said. "Try as he might, there is no hiding that Cuomo is the candidate of Wall Street and the Winklevii."
Other small donors for Cuomo included Cuomo adviser Jennifer Bayer Michaels ($5), the father of one of Cuomo's spokeswomen ($1), and the lobbyist father of a top Cuomo aide ($10). The Times reported one lobbyist, who had written checks of $10,000 and $5,000, also gave $50 in that period. State arts council appointtee Jaynne C. Keyes gave Cuomo $20,000 in July and then followed up with two donations for $5 each.
Nevertheless, only 1 percent of the $6 million he raised in the past six months came from donors of $250 or less. The report notes he made more on interest payments on his campaign war chest—nearly $154,000—than he got in total contributions from donors giving under $1,000–less than $110,000.
Nixon’s average contribution was around $50, while Cuomo's was more than $3,000. Nixon has just $661,000 in cash on hand, about 47 times less than Cuomo's $31.1 million:
Mr. Cuomo’s financial edge has only expanded in recent months, as he added large contributions from powerful institutional donors such as the New York A.F.L.-C.I.O. ($65,000), the state nurses association ($64,600), and Viacom Telecommunications LLC ($50,000). Billy Joel and Alexis Joel each reported $26,992 in in-kind contributions to Mr. Cuomo, as well, this month.
One of Mr. Cuomo’s largest donors in 2018 are the brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who together gave $130,000. The brothers founded a virtual currency exchange in New York to trade currency like Bitcoin.
They gave $50,000 each in April. In May, the New York Department of Financial Services authorized their firm to trade a new currency, Zcash. They each gave $15,000 in June and co-hosted a fund-raiser for Mr. Cuomo in July.
Nixon has some star power in her corner as well. Sex and the City co-star Christopher Noth gave her insurgent campaign $2,500, and actor Alec Baldwin donated $16,000. She also received $10,000 from Lena Dunham, $11,000 from Susan Sarandon and $1,000 from Chelsea Handler.
She still remains far behind in her bid to pull off the upset, trailing by 36 percentage points in a new Quinnipiac poll. Cuomo has a 72 percent approval rating among registered Democrats in the survey.
Q Poll:
Cuomo 59%
Nixon 23%The crosstabs show Cuomo winning across every age, region, race, gender and ideology pic.twitter.com/lSFLtyiFM2
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 18, 2018