The three gubernatorial campaigns made their financial filings today for the fourth 2005 fundraising quarter, and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano trails the pack, raising a paltry $251,063 to Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy’s $477,034 (Gov. M. Jodi Rell raised over $896,748 in her first quarter in the game).Lucky for the DeStefano campaign it just happened to have a statewide press event scheduled for tomorrow, where it will receive a union endorsement that was a foregone conclusion. Let the spinning begin!
Ctnewsjunkie.com received an email at 3:50 p.m. from DeStefano’s campaign. “DeStefano Sets All Time Democratic Gubernatorial Fundraising Record,” it trumpeted, before announcing the campaign has raised a total of $2.84 million.Of course, DeStefano raised only $251,063 last October through December, much lower than the $339,350 he raised in the third quarter (which was during the lazy summer months). Malloy, on the other hand, put out his figures earlier in the day: $477,034, slightly above the $403,790 he raised the third quarter. Thus Malloy nearly doubled DeStefano this past quarter. So at 4:06 p.m., ctnewsjunkie.com received another DeStefano email, this one announcing a statewide media event for tomorrow, where New England Health Care Employees District 1199 (along with UNITE-HERE) will endorse his bid for governor. In itself, the 1199 endorsement is hardly a surprise. The union has been directing contributions to DeStefano for months, a reflection of DeStefano’s strong backing of 1199’s position in the Yale/New Haven hospital cancer center fight. The only question was when the union would announce its endorsement. Asked if the campaign picked tomorrow for the 1199 announcement because of its bad fundraising performance, DeStefano campaign manager Shonu Gandhi said the event had been scheduled for weeks. Asked if the campaign picked January 11 weeks ago because it knew even then that fundraising was going badly, Gandhi said that date was when labor was ready to go. “The quarter went exactly as planned,” Gandhi said. “We spent our time building a network in Hartford and Fairfield County, courting small-dollar donors and and setting ourselves up for the next 8 months.“In general, she tried to accentuate the positive.“The DeStefano Campaign has now raised more money than any Democrat who has run for governor,” she said. “With a $700,000 cash advantage over Mayor Malloy, mounting, broad support from organized labor, and growing support from Democratic leaders and grassroots activists, the DeStefano Campaign is putting together all the key elements of a winning campaign.”