Democratic mayoral frontrunner Bill de Blasio blazed past GOP rival Joe Lhota in the October fundraising sprint, bolstered by a Hillary Clinton-headlined cash bash.
De Blasio, the city’s public advocate, raked in a hefty $3.7 million between Oct. 1 and 21, while Lhota netted about $700,000, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Friday.
A cool $1 million of de Blasio’s haul came just from the fundraiser with
, held in the hours before the filing period’s Monday-night close.
De Blasio came into the home stretch with more than $1.25 million left to spend as of midnight Monday, his campaign said.
Update:
In fact, the new filings show de Blasio finished the period with substantially more —
nearly $2.9 million, including about $500,000 in runoff money he can’t touch
— but the campaign has since spent about $1.56 million,
.)
Update 2:
Based on his raising and spending, Lhota was
at the period’s Monday close.
According to Lhota’s daily disclosures, he’s since raised at least $10,450 more and spent at least $150,000, which would leave him just under $300,000. (Remember, those dailies only require reports of donations of $1,000 or more and spending to a single vendor of $20,000 or better.)
No matter what, all this means de Blasio has a huge financial edge in the final days of the race.
Lhota, the Republican former MTA boss and deputy mayor has been trailing de Blasio by more than 40 points in public polls.
Both candidates are getting help from outside spending groups.
In what could set off a last-minute spending scramble, an appeals court this week ruled in favor of a pro-Lhota
group that wants to accept donations over the current $150,000 per person limit.
A labor-funded
also announced a million-dollar ad push to aid de Blasio’s effort before the Nov. 5 vote.
The candidates face off in their third and final televised
Tuesday night in Manhattan.
