Election ’15: campaign cash soars to new heights in Riverhead town races

Election 2015 is shaping up as the most expensive campaign in Riverhead Town history — and that’s without the tens of thousands of dollars pouring into the supervisor’s race on behalf of Councilwoman Jodi Giglio from a super PAC funded by the Suffolk County PBA.

The Republican and Democratic party committees, together with the supervisor and town board candidates’ committees, have already reported receiving more than $305,000 in this election cycle. That’s as of Oct. 19.  Editor’s note: RiverheadLOCAL has compiled the campaign finance disclosure reports filed by candidates and committees and posted them in the Election Guide section.

What the candidates and party committees have raised and spent on this campaign is only part of the story this year. For the first time, the town elections have seen the influx of money from so-called super PACs, which can spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of — or against — a candidate.

The super PACs must file an schedule of expenditures showing which campaigns they spent money on.

Suffolk PBA super PAC spends more on Riverhead supe race
than on any county race, including county executive

The controversial involvement of a super PAC funded by the Suffolk County police union continues. The L.I. Law Enforcement Foundation reported spending $54,000 on the Riverhead supervisor’s race as of the last regular disclosure report, the 11-day pre-general election report. That was the largest sum the PAC reported spending on any single race during that reporting period, when it spent $63,367 on all other races combined. The most it spent on any other race was $19,870, on County Executive Steve Bellone’s re-election campaign.

After the Oct. 19 cut-off date for that report, the police union super PAC reported the expenditure of another $69,775 on mobile billboard advertising, according to 24-hour disclosure notices required by the state board of elections. Those funds were spent in the Riverhead supervisor’s race and nine other races, all of them for county office, according to the 24-hour notices. The notices do not indicate how much was spent on behalf of individual campaigns.

A final accounting of what’s been raised and spent on town elections this year won’t be available until Nov. 30, when the final campaign finance disclosure reports are due at the state board of elections. The final report will cover the period from Oct. 20 through Nov. 26. The most recent disclosure report — the 11-day pre-general election report — was due Oct. 23 and has a cut-off date of Oct. 19.

Contributions and loans of $1,000 or more, made between Oct. 20 and Nov. 2 must be disclosed in a special 24-hour notice filed with the state board of elections.

This year’s biggest contributors
United Riverhead Terminal owner John Catsimatidis made a $15,000 contribution to the Riverhead Republican Committee on Oct. 28, according to a 24-hour notice filed with the state. It was the largest contribution from a non-candidate reported by the committee this year. (Jodi Giglio’s campaign committee, Friends of Jodi Giglio, made three contributions to the party committee in August and September totaling $26,500.)

The oil magnate also contributed $10,000 to the campaign of Riverhead resident and former Riverhead Republican executive committee member George Harkin, who is running for Family Court Judge.

Not counting the Catsimatidis contribution — which, with all contributions received after Oct. 19 must be reported in the final disclosure report due Nov. 30, the Republican Committee raised $69,772 this year.

The GOP committee’s biggest contributors were:

• Bob Gaffney, former county executive, whose campaign committee made a $4,000 contribution to the party committee last week;
• Dennis Kelleher of H2M, the town’s engineering consultant, $3,000;
• Louise DeVito, who lists the same address as Ronald DeVito, principal in Concordia, which is seeking to build an assisted living facility on Mill Road, $1,000; Ronald DeVito contributed $500;
• Irwin Garsten, owner of a Route 58 auto dealership and vacant land on Route 58 that he’s seeking to develop with a shopping center, $3,000; and
• Stephen Lerner, founder of Lerner Properties, owner of Gateway Plaza (Wal-Mart shopping center) and Riverhead Plaza, $1,000 (Applebee’s site).

The Democratic Committee raised less than half of what the Republican committee raised: $24,437.

The Democrats’ biggest contributors were:

• 1199 SEIU_NYS PAC, a healthcare workers union political action committee: $5,000;
• U.A. Steamfitters PAC: $1,000; and
• contributions of $2,500 each (all on Oct. 16) from four different companies that share the same address, 99 W. Main St. East Islip: JRE Wireless Inc., Propagation Solutions Inc., Site Tech Wireless LLC and Wireless Towers LLC.

Amounts raised by the individual town board candidates so far this election year are as follows:

• Jodi Giglio – $72,381
• Sean Walter – $51,130
• Anthony Coates – $9,319
• Tim Hubbard – $12,962
• Jim Wooten – $16,430
• Neil Krupnick – $9,599
• Laura Jens-Smith – $12,396

Additionally, Coates reported making a $10,000 personal loan to his campaign.

Assessor candidate Greg Fischer reported that he made $40,000 in contributions to his own campaign during the most recent reporting period.