In New York’s 19th district, a race between a former Army colonel, Republican Rep. Chris Gibson, and Sean Eldridge, the husband of Facebook co-founder and The New Republic publisher Chris Hughes, would seem to be a study in contrasts. And yet their fundraising style isn’t so different: both have a donor base that is spread far and wide throughout the state and the country.

From Riches to Races

In 2012, Eldridge created a super PAC to combat the corrupting influence of money in state politics. Now, he is promising to spend his own money to match all contributions to his campaign, which has been heavily funded by gifts from billionaires and smaller donations facilitated by the liberal crowdfunding website, ActBlue.

Eldridge has set out to differentiate himself from Gibson — whose top donors include the political action committees of the American Bankers Association, General Electric and New York Life Insurance — by pledging to refuse money from corporate PACs. But thanks to his influential circle of friends at the intersection of the Silicon Valley, Wall Street and progressive activist worlds, he’s been doing well on the fundraising front. By September 2013, when he publicly announced his candidacy on Twitter, his campaign had already racked up donations from a bevy of A-list technology entrepreneurs. His early donors include Napster co-founder Sean Parker, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, NetApp co-founder David Hitz, Facebook‘s Mark Zuckerberg — and of course, husband Chris Hughes. All gave him $5,200 — the maximum allowed — before he even started campaigning.

Eldridge has also put the liberal fundraising infrastructure to good use. Out of a little over $3 million he’s raised this cycle — including about $1.7 million that were not out of his own pocket — $655,000 came from online fundraising website ActBlue. That’s 38 percent of his campaign’s fundraising effort, personal funds excluded. He’s also receiving cash from the Hudson Valley Victory Fund, which fundraises jointly for his campaign and those of incumbent New York Reps. Sean Patrick Maloney, who is Canadian-born, like Eldridge, and Carolyn B. Maloney. Between January and the end of June, the JFC received $98,000, or 80 percent of its total revenue from ActBlue alone.

People in $2 million modernist pool houses bought for the express purpose of running for office should not throw stones. Or at least, they should avoid emphasizing the corrupting influence of money in politics. Yet, that’s exactly what Eldridge did when he first began expressing political ambitions in New York. In 2012, he founded the super PAC Protect Our Democracy to advocate for publicly-funded elections in the state. Soon, the group was accused of serving as a conduit for the couple to skirt campaign contribution limits while backing the campaign of Democratic state Senate candidate Cecilia Tkaczyk. The couple had given $250,000 to the Super PAC, according to Times Union.

But the exercise helped the couple raise their political capital among Democrats — including none less than Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who threw his support behind Protect Our Democracy. Now, Eldridge’s campaign has received big checks from several Democratic leadership PACs, including House minority whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.)’s AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)’s Empire PAC and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.)’s PAC to the Future all of which gave him $10,000. Eldridge also received a tidy $9,000 from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Help us keep government accountable by making a donation today.

Big Wigs and Carpetbaggers

Incumbent and born-and-bred upstate New Yorker Chris Gibson has often tried to depict his opponent as a carpetbagger. “He has absolutely no ties to the district, and he files for candidacy,” he said in April on YNN. “The only reason why this guy is a candidate is money. It’s money. That’s the only reason.”

In some ways, he has a point. Gibson’s only reported assets are $100,001 to $250,000, held in a checking/savings account; his only liability, a $251,000 to $500,000 mortgage on his home. Meanwhile, Eldridge and Hughes’ $2 million real estate purchase in Shokan, N.Y., was first reported by New York Magazine in February 2013 — the same month Eldridge, then 26, filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. And that was the second time the couple bought a home in upstate New York with political ambitions in mind. Yet, despite the candidates’ contrasting fortunes, both their campaigns have been similarly fueled by big checks. Only seven percent of Gibson’s contributions, and four percent of Eldridge’s, were smaller than $200.

And though they might be appealing to different circles, both Eldridge and Gibson are looking to greener pastures for their fundraising effort. Gibson has more money coming from inside the state — 73 percent, compared to Eldridge’s 65 percent. But both have raised more from New York City than from any other metropolitan area — not Albany, which is half the distance away but lacks a moneyed Wall Street elite. The securities & investment industries gave more than $200,000 to Eldridge and more than $100,000 to Gibson.

Though he’s running as a Washington outsider, Gibson’s top source of funding is a string of Republican leadership PACs. He has the financial backing of the House Leader, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor‘s Every Republican is Crucial, which gave $10,000; Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky Mitch McConnell‘s Bluegrass Committee; and Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise‘s Eye of the Tiger PAC. He’s also a favorite of several organized interest groups, including the American Council of Engineering Companies, the National Association of Realtors, the American Bankers Association, American Crystal Sugar and Blue Cross/Blue Shield which all gave more than $10,000 to his campaign — mainly through their PACs. And despite his anti-establishment posture, Gibson has received outsized support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which poured $350,000 in outside spending into the race already. That’s almost as much as the $366,000 his campaign has spent so far.

Eldridge and Gibson are each accusing the other of being beholden to outside interests. One thing is for sure: this race is bigger than New York’s 19th district.

Follow Lalita on Twitter at @lalitaclozel



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]





Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜