Statewide Cash Fuels Harp Campaign

In the race to become New Haven’s next mayor, Toni Harp has been filling her campaign war chest by tapping into a statewide network of donors. Justin Elicker continues to draw largely from his East Rock neighborhood base.

Harp raised a total of $81,605 from from individual donors between Sept. 3 and Oct. 3, $58,825 of it from within the state but outside of New Haven. That doesn’t include another $17,500 Harp took in from committees, almost all of which are headquartered outside of the city.

Elicker, meanwhile, gathered most of his cash during the same period from within New Haven. He collected $86,443 from New Haveners, and only $6,875 from elsewhere in Connecticut.

Both campaigns collected a few thousand dollars each from outside the state.

Those figures emerge from an analysis of the latest campaign finance disclosure statements in the mayor’s race. Voters head to the polls on Nov. 5.

The filings show that Elicker is more than keeping pace with Harp’s fundraising, despite eschewing committee cash and limiting donations to $370 or less ( to continue conforming with the rules of the voluntary public-financing system, the Democracy Fund, which offered him matching money in the Democratic primary). He equaled Harp in September fundraising largely by continuing to draw from his strong base of support in East Rock. Elicker represents East Rock on the Board of Aldermen. Harp has been a state senator for 21 years; she co-chairs the legislature’s powerful Appropriations Committee.

At the end of the filing period, the Elicker campaign had nearly $80,000 on hand while Harp’s campaign was slightly in debt. Read more about that here.

State Of The Race

A map of Harp’s individual donors — not counting committee donations — shows the extent of her support in the state. During the month of September, she pulled in donations from New Haven suburbs, as well as towns farther away in Connecticut, including the Hartford area.

Elicker statewide donor map (pictured) shows that his September support came almost entirely from New Haven. He also tapped a cluster of donors in New Canaan, his hometown.

Within the city limits, Harp found a citywide smattering of donors citywide, with her strongest support coming from in and around Westville.

Harp collected from 135 New Haveners in September and 199 statewide. Elicker had 551 New Haven donors and only 39 statewide. Elicker had more donors from out of state, but collected less from them than Harp. (See chart at top of story.)

Not only did Harp have more statewide donors; they contributed more. Harp collected more than twice as much, on average, from her donors outside of New Haven than from New Haveners. She collected the most, on average, from her out-of-state donors, and ended up with an overall average donation size 1.3 times larger than Elicker. Elicker’s supporters, meanwhile, gave roughly the same amount regardless of their location.

Elicker collected most of his money not just in town, but in a single neighborhood: East Rock. He also found support in Westville, the East Shore, and Fair Haven Heights.

Cross-referencing Elicker’s donor map with a map of New Haven by race (based on census information, by way of the University of Virginia) shows that Elicker continues to draw his support largely from New Haven’s predominantly white neighborhoods. Elicker is white; Harp is African-American. (Click here for a story on the race’s racial dynamic.)

A side-by-side look at the two campaign’s proportional breakdown shows how different their donor bases are. The vast majority of Elicker’s individual donors live in New Haven. The majority of Harps donors live in the state, outside of New Haven.

Again, all of the charts above deal only with individual donations, and do not include money from committees or from the Democracy Fund. More on that below.

Contractors, Lobbyists, Committees

In the primary election, Elicker ran as a Democracy Fund candidate, taking part in the city’s voluntary public-financing program. He didn’t accept donations of more than $370 and took no money from committees. In exchange, he received Democracy Fund grant money and matching funds. In the general election, Elicker is no longer a Demcracy Fund candidate but is voluntarily abiding by the same restrictions.

(The most recent filing period includes a week before the primary, when Elicker was still a Democracy Fund candidate, and received $3,530 from the fund.)

Harp is not and was not a Democracy Fund candidate. So she has accepted donations of up to $1,000, plus money from committees.

Despite Harp’s fundraising advantages, she and Elicker were neck-and-neck during the month of September. Elicker took in $100,353, counting money from the Democracy Fund. Harp took in $100,405, counting $1,300 from sales of advertising, not included on these charts. (Harp’s total is lower than reported last week, partly because her campaign had mistakenly listed a $250 donation as a $3,875 donation.)

Now that he’s no longer a Democracy Fund candidate, Elicker’s campaign is fueled entirely by individual donations (rather than matching government money as well). Of those individual donors in the last filing period, two are city contractors, and one is a lobbyist. Elicker took in $150 from the contractors and $50 from the lobbyist.

Harp’s campaign is more popular with city contractors and lobbyists. She tapped 46 contractors and 12 lobbyists, collecting $15,695 and $2,600 from those groups, respectively.

Harp collected $17,500 from committees, mostly from unions. Her committee donations:

CT Correction Employees, Middletown, $1,000
Ct Association of Optometrists, Hartford, $1,500
Congress Political Action Fund, Hartford, $1,000
Robinson & Cole State, Hartford, $1,000
Connecticut Health Care — District 1199, Hartford, $750
SEIU Local 32BJ Connecticut, New York, $1,500
IUPAT, Berlin, $500
IRON PAC 424, North Haven, $1,500
CT State Council of Machinists MNPL, Kensington, $250
Connecticut AFL-CIO OPC Account, Rocky Hill, $500
New Haven Firefighters, New Haven, $1,000
SEIU State Council PAC, Hartford, $750
Operating Engineers Continuing, New Haven, $1,500
AFT Connecticut, Rocky Hill, $1,500
Central CT Carpenters, Yalesville, $1,500
Carpenters Local 210, Monroe, $250
IBEW Local Union 90, Wallingford, $1,500

The next campaign filing deadline is Oct. 29.