NY20 - Election Day

Here we are, Election Day.

It's been quite a ride that started on January 27th, when Jim Tedisco asked if I'd be his Finance Chairman. I was surprised by the call, given that I'd never raised money beyond Saratoga County (one of the 10 counties in the 20th CD) and I didn't know if I'd be able to meet his expectations.

Well, the team raised over $1,500,000. So I guess we did pretty good, considering that it was an 8 week campaign. I'll do a more in depth analysis later, when I have more perspective looking back and see things a little clearer. But the short version is this:

Howard Becker, the Finance Director, did an excellent job driving the whole team (Melissa Schwarz, Ali Almour from NRCC, and me). He's been with Jim for over 25 years and was the chief fund raiser for RACC (Republican Assembly Campaign Committee) for the past 3 years, when Jim became the Minority Leader. He got to know most of the State's major Republican supporters and knew who to ask and schedule fund raising events.

My role, besides raising money from Saratoga County (1/3 of the District), or anyone I knew, was to coordinate with Finance Chairs from each County to hold events. I met some great people as well as some who said they'd do x, y and z... and ..... didn't. Of course, that happens with any organization.

The fun part was how the race became National in many respects. A large part of the money raised came from Wash DC - both from PACS and members of Congress. They saw that winning the first 2009 election could be viewed as a referendum on Obama and Pelosi. And that's why over $165,000 was raised on the Internet. We'll never be able to do that again when we're just one of 435 congressional races.

I'll post the breakdown in future posts, but a rough number is: about 80% of the Internet money raised was from outside NY20, and more than 60% from out of the State.

I'll also write about my experiences at CPAC, where I met some very smart people who were all true believers.

As to the race. My gut says it can go either way. I DO expect to win tonight, but my gut hasn't always been right every time.