| Tom Golisano's PAC, Responsible New York, has announced its endorsements of 47 incumbents and challengers (39 incumbents and eight challengers) for New York State Senate this year. Some of the endorsements aren't surprising, given that Golisano and Responsible New York endorsed 13 candidates last week, most of whom were state senate candidates. Golisano also endorsed David Nachbar, who is a Democratic state senate candidate running against Republican Jim Alesi. Those endorsements that were announced last week included Rick Dollinger and Joe Mesi on the Democratic side and Barbara Donno and Sen. Jim Seward on the Republican side, among others.
Golisano PAC Puts Out Endorsement List
The group is backing eight challengers, including six Democrats and two Republicans-enough to certainly shake the power structure of Republicans' narrow 31-29 lead in the Senate.
Responsible New York is not endorsing candidates in 15 races.
So let's see, that's 47 candidates divided by Golisano's $5 million into the PAC. That's about $106,000 a race. (The $5M check is above.)
But Golisano and his co-chairs say not every race will be funded equally, and will depend on the competitiveness of the races. They said they haven't made any funding decisions yet.
The most notable candidates and incumbents that Golisano's PAC backed include:
- Democrat Brian Foley was backed in SD-3 over Sen. Caesar Trunzo. Out of all the downstate races, this is becoming the top pickup for the Democrats. Golisano backing Foley certainly means something.
- There is no endorsement in SD-15, where Democrat Joseph Addabbo will be challenging Republican Sen. Serph Maltese.
- Sen. Darrel Aubertine was endorsed by Golisano over Republican David Renzi. This seat (SD-48) is a target for Republicans, although they did not put up a strong candidate.
Responsible New York will be backing Assembly candidates and those will be announced soon. |
