Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Open Forum

Malloy is showing definite signs of life: more than that, he outraised DeStefano this quarter by between $70K-$100K. DeStefano actually raised less money this quarter than last, although he still has more total cash than Malloy. Could be that Bysiewicz supporters drifted en masse to Malloy.

If Malloy had raised as little as he did last quarter, DeStefano would have started to look inevitable. As it is, Malloy seems to be picking up some speed while DeStefano is slowing down a bit. It'll be interesting to see where the money goes now that Blumenthal is officially out.

Jodi Rell will (finally) declare her candidacy this Friday.

Nancy Johnson is catching some heat for taking a very nice trip to Ecuador, paid for by the partially federally funded Nature Conservancy.

And lastly, it's still raining. It'll keep raining until well into Friday, causing already swollen and flooding rivers and streams to rise even further. There's already been some substantial flood damage in northern New England and parts of Western Massachusetts: we may experience the same here.

What else is happening today?

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is a surprising turn of events. As you said Ghenghis, DeStefano is slowing down and Malloy looks to have the momentum now. It should be an interesting quarter ahead... if this trend continues it could mean big trouble for the New Haven mayor.

Aldon Hynes said...

As I noted in a comment elsewhere, based on Malloy's comments elsewhere that they raised $228,000 during half of the second quarter. Based on that, one would expect that he would raise $456,000 this quarter, and so it would seem that he is slowing down as well.

It is worth noting that the third quarter is traditionally a slow quarter and with a lot of money going to Katrina relief, which we pushed hard for on our blog, as well as money going into municipal elections, it isn't surprising that both candidates slowed down.

In addition, with races like this, you go out and get the easy money first. As the race progresses and all of the usual donors get tapped out, it becomes harder to raise money.

Mayor Malloy is still raising money from the early easy donors and still his best quarter is weaker than Mayor DeStefano's best quarter.

Based on this, as well as my discussions with a lot of Bysiewicz supporters that are now supporting Mayor DeStefano, I don't think there has been an en masse drift to Malloy.

Mayor DeStefano remains way ahead in total raised, total on hand, most money raised in a quarter and the number of political and labor endorsements.

So, Malloy supporters are welcome to think this is big trouble for DeStefano. However, the facts don't really stack up to support it.

Aldon Hynes said...

P.S. I was thinking it would be interesting to do an analysis of how many donations the Malloy and DeStefano campaigns have received from people that had previously donated to Bysiewicz. Unfortunately, CFIS is still reporting zeros for all of the Malloy information. Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

Genghis Conn said...

Aldon,

The fundraising numbers may not be trouble for either candidate. I'm of the opinion that next quarter will be much more revealing.

However, one thing that the numbers do is firmly establish a two-man race. Malloy looks just as legitimate as DeStefano.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to agree with Aldon. In a gubenatorial race like this a small fundraising edge in one quarter is neither surprising or worthy of the 'M' word.

Anonymous said...

Aldon,

Easy money first? Didn't Malloy declare BEFORE Destefano? Wasn't he the first candidate to raise a million dollars? I think the "easy money" is well behind both candidates.

Your camp will obviously try and spin this as hard as possible, as you should... but there is little denying the Malloy folks have the momentum right now.

Anonymous said...

Basically, one cadidate is bound to have a higher quarter than their opposition at some point! But at the end of the day what matters is the total amount of money raised. If I am calculating this correctly, Malloy has raised a total of 1.7 million, while DeStefano has raised a total of 2.6 million. That is almost a million dollar difference. I'm no expert but ... I think those numbers speak for themselves.

Anonymous said...

Aldon,

Expanding on your thought, it seems that candidates go after easy money and endorsements first.

After stopping and restarting his fundraising efforts, it would seem that Malloy gets the edge in this quarter for money.

After the Nov. election settles local political activities, endorsements may mean something.

Aldon Hynes said...

franks Yeah, that pretty much matches my thinking at this point.

Let me expand on it a little more:
(The CFIS system is working now, so I have some data.)

Let’s look at the numbers. In the third quarter, Malloy received 594 donations, 76 of them maxed out. That was 14 more people maxing out in the third quarter than maxed out in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, DeStefano received 704 donations. 48 of them maxed out.

Mayor Malloy did well in reaching out to the high dollar donors. 28 donors contributing $2,500 is $70,000 right there. I’m not sure I call 28 people a lot of momentum. Meanwhile, the DeStefano campaign is raising money from more people. I’m not sure that I consider the 110 additional people a lot of momentum in DeStefano’s case either.

When I talk about ‘easy money’, I’m talking about people that can write $2,500 checks to political campaigns. I don’t think there are a lot of them out there and the well will run dry.

I don’t know when it will run dry, but that is my thinking about ‘easy money’. So, from a strategic viewpoint, I think DeStefano is in better shape.

I believe that there are a lot of people that we can get to contribute $25 each. It takes a hundred of them to match one of those big donors. That is a lot more work, but in the long run it is an important strategy.

Beyond that, as we spend all our time talking about campaign finance reform, I’m glad to be working for a candidate that is trying to get regular people involved instead of counting on the ‘momentum’ of 28 very rich donors.

Anonymous said...

anonymous,

It's not only the amount of money raised - it's how wisely the money is used that counts. Remember Howard Dean's fundraising prowess. As it turned out he was blowing through the money as fast as it came in.

There are signs of similar profligate spending by Destefano. Though he's probably limiting costs courtesy of New Haven tax payers.

My guess is this is far from over, but Destefano is losing momentum fast. He's never had a serious race, nor has his inexperienced team. It will be interesting to see how they handle mounting pressure.

Last week's debacle was hardly an indication of grace under fire.

Anonymous said...

Aldon please stop, you're looking silly. I can't look at the numbers like you (at least I don't think, can anyone log on to that site? I always thought you had to go somewhere and get hard copies), but I do have a couple of points...

Let’s look at the numbers. In the third quarter, Malloy received 594 donations, 76 of them maxed out. That was 14 more people maxing out in the third quarter than maxed out in the second quarter.

Since Malloy suspended fundraising, his "second quarter" was really about a month. So obviously there will be less people donating and therefore less maxed-out donors. I love how you don't mention the total number of donations in your second figure. A percentage of maxed-out voters would be more telling and more accurate, but that's not your goal here of course.

When I talk about ‘easy money’, I’m talking about people that can write $2,500 checks to political campaigns. I don’t think there are a lot of them out there and the well will run dry.

I'll point out again that Malloy has been campaigning longer, and got to a million first. There is no reason to believe that because he is coming off a shortened quarter he "used up" any big donors and now they're gone. Wouldn't he have gotten those on his way to a million? Why should anyone believe he won't continue to get these kind of dollars?

Actually, the idea of easy money running out is an interesting concept for anyone familiar with the pay-to-play politics that have defined New Haven for all of Destefano's years. Maybe John is running out of city contractors to extort?

Genghis Conn said...

Evelyn Mantilla Out

Just got a press release from the Mantilla campaign: she's out of the SotS race. She'll be running for re-election in her Hartford district instead.

I guess she was waiting to see if Blumenthal would run for governor, and if Bysiewicz would then run for AG.

Anonymous said...

Let’s rewind a year to before the “Malloy Investigation.” In the 9/30 quarter last year, DeStefano raised $422,944.00 to Malloy’s $213,107.00. The Malloy buzz wasn’t DeStefano has growing momentum, or our momentum is dropping it was:

“"We don’t measure ourselves in terms of other people’s campaigns," Malloy said. "We’ve surpassed our own goals." Malloy’s third-quarter fund-raising goal — $175,000 — was set lower out of respect for Democrats seeking state office this year, he said.” (NH Register, 9/29/04)

Fundraising ebbs and flows – one quarter will not define who the democratic candidate for governor is. If money will define who the nominee is DeStefano continues to have nearly a million dollar lead in fundraising, needless to say if Malloy continues to “pickup speed” at the pace of $40k a quarter it will take 25 quarters or over six years to catch up.

But this should be about beating Jodi Rell – to do so we need to work together we need to combine party organization and Labor (DeStefano has earned the only statewide labor endorsements of the Connecticut Building Trades & AFSCME Council 15) we need to define a clear message of improving life for our families. We can’t bicker amongst democrats – we need to start defining the issues – painting the picture to voters why we need a democrat in the Governor’s Mansion.

DeStefano’s Numbers 9/30/04 http://cfisct.sots.state.ct.us/servlet/com.cfis.control.CFISTotalStatementReportServlet\
Malloy’s Numbers 9/30/04
http://cfisct.sots.state.ct.us/servlet/com.cfis.control.CFISTotalStatementReportServlet
9/29/04 Fundraising Article
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13027395&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8

Aldon Hynes said...

superD: The Malloy used the excuse last quarter for that they were only fundraising for half the quarter. You seem to be back peddling pretty quickly from that. I did a quick check on the CFIS numbers and you are right, almost half the money that Malloy raised came from out side of Fairfield County.

You don’t mention that the majority of the non-Fairfield county money is not only not from Fairfield County, it isn’t even from Connecticut.

Dems in 06: Yes, you can look at the numbers. Go to http://cfisct.sots.state.ct.us/cfis.jsp and you can extract all the information. I’ve been analyzing it in spreadsheets.

You are right, Malloy has been campaigning longer. He got to a million first. However, he is still nearly a million behind DeStefano.


If he keeps catching up at the rate he caught up in the third quarter, he will finally be even with DeStefano just in time for the 2010 election.

Genghis Conn said...

Chris Murphy is now calling on Nancy Johnson to return the money she spent taking a trip to Ecuador. From his press release:
"You simply cannot give taxpayer dollars to a
group with one hand and then accept a $17,000 gift from them with the
other. Johnson needs to return this money to the Nature Conservancy
right now so there is absolutely no hint of a quid pro quo."

Anonymous said...

I think the reason Malloy's campaign is gaining momentum has to be attributed more to his State-wide stumping resulting in letting people get to know him and his record, not to fundraising.

During the few opportunities I had to see/hear both Malloy and Destefano in person it became apparent that more people were coming from farther away in the state to Malloy's appearences.

Most of the individuals in the audience I spoke with at the Destefano events(obviously a small number out of the total crowd) were locals.

At Malloy events people are coming from all corners of the state on word of mouth about a candidate who can really communicate to everyone in an honest and candid way. At one event I attended in Hartford one couple was from Massachusetts to take part in a Q&A about Transportation issues.

Lets get over the spin of quarterly fundraising and focus on a candidate who can satisfy the needs of all CT residents. A candidate who can stimulate non-locals and include everyone in a productive conversation about our collective future.

Aldon Hynes said...

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with a Malloy supporter here. :-)

Blue in CD2 is right about getting people out to hear the candidates. Go hear Malloy. Go hear DeStefano. Listen to what they have to say. Get into a dialog with them about the issues. Then, decide for yourselves based on what they say who you support, and not based on the most recent fundraising numbers.

From the DeStefano website, you will see that Mayor DeStefano will be at the Brooklyn and Montville DTC meetings on Thursday. He will be in Redding on Sunday and East Haven on Monday.

From the Malloy website, you can see that he will be at the Simsbury DTC meeting on Oct 19th and at the Seymour Harvest Moon Ball on Oct 29th.

Blue in CD2 thinks Malloy speaks better. I think DeStefano speaks better. Both of them speak very well about why we need one of them as the next Governor.

David said...

State Representative David McCluskey, Democrat/West Hartford has joined the blogger world with http://ctprogressivedemocrat.blogspot.com. It has news on upcoming events as well as political commentary. I hope you find it useful. I will try to keep it fresh and interesting.

Anonymous said...

First time visitor - looks like you've got a good forum here... I had a conversation with some folks in my office today about the prospect of "meaningful" campaign finance reform... The discussion turned to the topic of labor union donations made to municipal candidiates or slates... have you or anyone have details on just how much union or PAC money in general trickes down to local races. Seems to me like reform might start at City Hall... Is this an old or new line of thought?

Aldon Hynes said...

superD

It seems to me as if all the talk has been by you and a friend or two claiming that a small change in fundraising is a massive change in momentum. I just don't believe it is. Malloy is still a million behind and at the rate he is going, it will take him until 2010 to catch up.

As to out of state money, I have no objection to it. However, to suggest that Malloy has broad statewide support because approximately 22% of his donations this quarter came from parts of Connecticut other than Fairfield County, well, to me that just doesn't sound all that broadbased to me.

Instead of trying to make things look better than they really are and accusing everyone who questions you of spin, you would do better to follow the example of blue in cd2 and talk places where Mayor Malloy actually looks good.

Both Mayors are doing very well in their fundraising. They are doing very well on the stump. Let's talk about why we need Malloy or DeStefano instead of Rell.

Anonymous said...

Aldon,

Don't act as if you're above the fray. I just read through the entire thread. You've been spinning all day. You must be dizzy. Part of your spin is accusing people of accusing you of spinning. You're venturing into meta-spin now. If it wasn't sad an unintentional I'd be impressed.

Others simply have been pointing out a number of flaws in your reasoning.

You're right on one thing, though. Both mayors are doing well at this point. But recent news cycles have been mixed at best for your guy.

Aldon Hynes said...

Wrath,

I don't deny that my job is to present the DeStefano campaign's position. However, if you want to talk about meta-spin, I would suggest you re-read the comments.

The first person to talk about spin is Dems in 06 at 11:08 followed by ' Blue in CD2' at 11:36. When I present the DeStefano campaign's positions, it is spin, but when they present their positions talking about my spinning, it isn't spin?

They are pointing what they view as flaws in my position. I am pointing out what I view as flaws in their positions. As an example, I still don't believe that approximately 22% of the donations coming from parts of Connecticut other than Fairfield County indicate an expanding base.

We are all doing the same thing, yourself included. With one exception. I do try to avoid personal attacks. I don't call the others 'silly' or talk about how the other your spinning is 'sad'.

We need to be focusing on how we defeat Rell, and not taking potshots at other.

Anonymous said...

To a comment made earlier in the day about the DeStefano campaign being "inexperienced" ... I'm not sure if you have ever worked with or even spoken to the staff but they are professional and experienced. Their campaign experiences range from grassroots and Mayoral, to U.S. Senate and House campaigns. Each individual in that office is more than qualified and capable of handling his or her position and all the tasks and backlash that comes with it.

Anonymous said...

Aldon,

Blue in CD2 did not post at 11:36. That person only posted once and appears to be the most level headed among us. Secondly if you took the “sad” comment as personal then you're sensitive and/or the job is getting to you. I was referring to your analysis as being sad. You know deep down that you've been stretching and dragging this thing out longer than necessary. That is sad.

I've seen you do better analysis. It's too bad I didn't see some of it here.

"…they raised $228,000 during half of the second quarter. Based on that, one would expect that he would raise $456,000 this quarter, and so it would seem that he is slowing down as well."

That analysis is simplistic to say the least. By the same rational Destefano should have matched his previous total, but no two quarters are the same so comparison doesn’t mean much.

Is the other side spinning? Maybe - but not as hard. To say Destefano is slowing down is at least based on a pretty concrete observation that he is $100,000 short of last quarter. That doesn’t take a lot of spin. It kind of speaks for itself. Your italicized statement above is spin.

Aldon Hynes said...

Wrath

First, I apologize for the typo. It was "Dems in 06" who posted at 11:36 about spin, not "Blue in CD2". I cut and paste the names and Blue in CD2 was still in the clipboard. I apologize.

As to stretching things out, I am responding to attacks. I will continue to respond to attacks as long as you and your friends continue to attack me. You are at least as responsible for dragging this out as I am.

Whether you are trying to use "sad" to attack me, or to attack my analysis, which is a fairly fine distinction, it is still a value loaded phrase which does not add to critical analysis.

Now, if you want to analyze spin, let's go back to what was presented a quarter ago. The Malloy campaign argued that the reason they raised approximately half of what the DeStefano campaign raised in the previous quarter was that they were only fundraising for half the quarter. Based on that spin, I had expected the Malloy campaign to do better than they did this quarter. They did not.

I had also hoped the DeStefano campaign would have done better than they did. They did not. Neither side raised as much money as I believe they should have, and in my opinion and that of others, there isn't any real change in momentum, no matter how much you and your friends assert that there is.

You can keep repeating that you think there is a change in momentum. I can keep repeating that I do not believe there is a change in momentum.

Then, there is the message that superD said, "almost 50% of Malloy contributors were from outside Fairfield County, so he is clearly expanding his financial base of support beyond his base".

You can claim that this isn't spin. In response, I will point out that approximately 22% of the donations are coming from parts of Connecticut other than Fairfield County and that this does not indicate an expanding base in. You can claim that is spin if you want.

All of that said, I will re-iterate my key point. As long as you continue to attack me or to attack Mayor DeStefano, I will continue to defend myself and Mayor DeStefano and I will continue to suggest that if you are really committed to making Connecticut better, you will save your attacks for Governor Rell.

Aldon Hynes said...

Now, to return to the more important task of challenging Rell:

The Courant today reports that Rell has finally agreed to the release of documents disclosing how $626 million of taxpayers money is being annually spent by Connecticut HMO’s.

Mayor DeStefano has been asking for this for months. You can read my spin on it on the DeStefano Blog.

Anonymous said...

I don't see it online yet, but the Journal Inquirer is reporting that the Destefano campaign is being investigated by the State Elections Enforcement Commission for not failing to report certain things in their filing.

Anonymous said...

DeanFan- As I understand it Malloy is opposed to the war in Iraq. I'm from Stamford, and not very long ago he participated in a demonstration with mothers of soldiers who have died in the war. You should probably do a little research before making such broad assumptions.

Oh and on that note, saying things like "DLC/neo-con" makes you seem really uninformed. Would you call Bill Clinton a neocon?

Anonymous said...

Ok, so a couple things have been making me, dare I say- Furious.
First things first. Don Michak of the Journal Inquirer wrote up an article concerning the fact that 99 donors, giving $142,000 of the money contributed to the DeStefano campaign over the last year are NONCOMPLIANT with state campaign finance regulations. From what I read, it's apparently illegal (not to mention immoral) to deposit checks into one's warchest if the donor does not give the campaign his or her employer or occupation info. A formal complaint would force DeStefano to withdraw the funds from his account, and possibly pay a $2000 fine for EACH VIOLATION.

Malloy has ONE (1) non-compliant donor. The treasurer of the DeStefano campaign, Gaylord Bourne, said that "85% is sort of the industry average", when talking about compliance with state regulations. So, that's all it really is, a lowering of standards. Great.... just GREAT.

I call shinanigans.
AS LOUD AS I CAN- SHINANIGANS ON YOU- John DeStefano!
Another thing that's bothering me in the same vein of campaign finanance- DeStefano is at odds with Malloy and former candidate Susan B. when considering campaign finance reform. Malloy and Susan said they'd give back their contributions, while DeStefano has been extremely reluctant to do so.
I was on the fence for a while, suffering from borderline apathy about the whole thing. But when I read that article today by Mr. Michak- I feel disgusted by Mayor DeStefano's sketchy-at-best politics.

Anonymous said...

Here is the link to the AP story on the DeStefano filing problem (click)

Aldon Hynes said...

Quick comments:

I don't know the details, but yes there was an administrative error which led to 99 donations being listed as noncompliant. This is being fixed.

When I looked at Malloy filing, I believe the number was about 20, not one as Mr. Furious suggests. From having read lots of campaign filings, I believe that the 85% number is probably about accurate.

I would encourage any of you who have never made a mistake filling out complicated forms to cast the first stone and spin it as shinanigans.

More importantly, Rell has filed her papers to run for re-election. Information is available here, as well as the DeStefano press release here.

Anonymous said...

Aldon - the JI article says that Malloy had one non compliant contribution, not "about 20", and their campaign manager explains it as a typo. The AP story mentioned nothing so I'm guessing it was fixed.

Aldon Hynes said...

I am getting my data off of the Campaign Finance Information System of the Secretary of States office. There are around 20 people in Mayor Malloy's filing that are flagged as 'Information Requested'. For exampled, Matthew Dembin of Fairfield, who donated $1,000 and Christopher Hilgert of Guilford, who also donated $1,000. As of 6:15 PM, they are not corrected.

I haven't read through any of the other filings, but it is a very common problem.

Aldon Hynes said...

And more election news, John Nussbaum is now announcing he will not continue his bid for Secretary of State.

Anonymous said...

We were greatful to the JI to bringing this to our attention. Today we amended our reports with the secretary of states office to include this information.

Genghis Conn said...

It's a shame about Nussbaum. He seemed very sharp.

Anonymous said...

Ghengis - even the AP has now picked up the Destefano investigation story. Certainly this is something worth commenting on. Can your readers assume that you're leaning his way in the Democratic primary race?

Genghis Conn said...

Anonymous,

So far there hasn't been any evidence that the omission of 99 names was deliberate (although one never knows). It does seem a little odd, and suggests that the DeStefano campaign is either hiding something (like what?) or just plain screwed up.

Let's take a look at the names and see if there's something worth hiding there before going crazy over it.

Aldon Hynes said...

As I've commented earlier in this thread, the DeStefano campaign screwed up. The Malloy campaign screwed up in the same way. From what I've seen, just about all campaigns screw up in the same way.

As I look at the data on CFIS, as of the filing deadline, I came up with what appears to me to be 136 names where the DeStefano campaign needs additional information. 34 of them were for amounts $1000, or more.

This information is publicly available and fairly easy to look up.

From what I've found on CFIS, here are the 34 names. Several have already been updated, and I've put in the updates I found on a very quick glance)
Clarence R. Frenkel
Constance Fitch
(Promotions Manager, Linn Television)
Earl R. Reed
Eileen S. Roger
(Housemaker)
Elizabeth Choquette
(Housemaker)
Katharine Ross
(Social Director, Park Ridge Elderly Housing)
Katherine Lynch
Mr. Anthony Della Valle
(VP Malcolm Pirnie)
Mr. Charles Clark
Mr. Dennis Hayes
Mr. Mark Candido
Mr. Neil Rea
Mr. Philip Barnett
Mr. Robert Dionne
Ms. Debra A. Swanson
Ms. Karen Bemis
Ms. Pearl Meyer
Richard Byrne
Robert Koen-Young
(Stone Carver, Gothic Stone Restoration)
Robert T. Ralston
(Owner UOF LLC)
Thomas Foldy
(State Marshal, State of Connecticut)
Bruno Suraci, Jr.
(CEO/Owner, Suraci Metal Furnishing)
Mr. George A. Sergentanis
(President Northeast Contractors)
Ms. Willa H. Jacobs
Barbara C Kimberly
Ms. Mary Ann H. Stewart
Sandra Palumbo
(Office Manager, Palumbo)
Jeanine P. McConaghy
(Homemaker)
Bonnie Perna
(Homemaker)
Judith Miko
(Homemaker)
Marcia J. Lazowski
(Interior Decorator, self)
Ms. Bridgette Thompson
(Executive Assistant, Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Asso)
Ms. Maureen Murphy-Smith
(Executive Assistant, Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Asso)
Sholom Andrusier
(Manager, New Haven Towers)

It is also worth noting that the reports are all over the place. The AP is reporting 53 donors. The Courant is saying 57 donors and Albert Lenge, the election commission’s deputy director, is quoted in the New Haven Register as saying, "The investigation is only in its beginning stage," Lenge said. "It will identify if it is 99 donors at issue, or 45 or none. It might be that there is a plausible explanation for this."

I don't know any of the details. However, it is worth noting that the filing system is fairly complicated so personally, I'm not surprised at the errors.