by Melissa Bailey | Oct 13, 2011 11:10 am

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Posted to: Campaign 2011

The going price for a Democratic primary vote in New Haven was $86 for an incumbent, and $11 if you were a publicly financed challenger.

That was one takeaway from the latest mayoral campaign finance reports filed with the City/Town Clerk this week. The reports give the first tally of the money spent on the Sept. 13 election, where Mayor DeStefano faced three challengers in the most competitive primary since 2001.

Jeffrey Kerekes, who’s running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, faces DeStefano a second time in a Nov. 8 general election.

Kerekes spent $33,585.86 on the primary, or $11.60 for each of his 2,895 votes.

DeStefano spent over seven times more: He spent $494,017.33 on his primary campaign, according to campaign manager Danny Kedem. That computes to $86.43 each for the 5,716 votes he received.

Kerekes said the comparison shows that an underdog challenger can do well in a “David versus Goliath situation.”

He said the numbers show that “a grassroots campaign, where we can get votes for far less expenditure, is a viable thing.”

Kedem said with the money raised, “We were able to put together an organization to broadcast a message” and beat Kerekes by a margin of 2 to 1. “We’re proud of that.”

If anything, the price comparison might understate the gap between the candidates: Kedem’s figure included expenses paid only on or before Sept. 13. Kedem said the figure is reflective of the money spent on the primary. Kerekes, however, included expenses that were paid weeks after the election but that he said were incurred during the primary. According to the rules of the Democracy Fund clean elections program, he can use his public grant money only on primary costs.

DeStefano’s financial advantage helped him blitz TV stations with ads, inundate mailboxes with glossy flyers, and pay for a ground team on Election Day. DeStefano won the election with 44 percent of the vote, to Kerekes’ 22 percent, Clifton Graves’ 18 percent and Anthony Dawson’s 16 percent.

DeStefano gained a large fundraising lead over his competition in part by ditching the Democracy Fund, a public finance program he helped set up to limit the influence of big-money special interests and to level the playing field for non-incumbent candidates. DeStefano chose not to participate this year in the program after his appointees who run the fund criticized his campaign for violations in reporting requirements.

Kerekes, who does not have a formidable fundraising operation, gained roughly two-thirds of his money through participating in the fund.

As both candidates look ahead to the next election, the gap in cash remains wide.

DeStefano continued to raise money after the primary, collecting $19,225.00 in the last two weeks of September alone. He had $25,290.92 in cash on hand as of Sept. 30, according to his filing.

“We plan to mount a vigorous campaign and we intend to fight for every vote possible,” Kedem said.

By contrast, Kerekes had $4,772.03 in cash on hand as of Oct. 6. Kerekes said he is not aggressively raising money for the general election, though he is accepting donations as they come in. That leaves him to rely on a free-media campaign and on help from volunteers.

Kerekes banked his primary campaign on the Democracy Fund, which gave him $23,952 in public money.

Democracy Fund Chairman Caleb Kleppner said the program did well to get Kerekes’ message out.

“It really gives a multiplier effect for candidates who don’t have a lot of resources,” he said.

The Democracy Fund offers a $17,000 grant plus matching money to candidates who raise a minimum of donations—at least $10 each from 200 local voters. A candidate who raises just $2,000 can obtain up to $21,000 if her opponent has raised at least $5,000.

Participating candidates must cap their spending at $338,000.

DeStefano, who isn’t participating, has no spending cap. He also has a higher cap on donations: Democracy Fund candidates can receive up to $340 per donor, while DeStefano is accepting donations of up to $1,000, the limit set by state law.

Records show DeStefano blew through the Democracy Fund’s spending cap and reached the spending levels of 2001, when he faced state Sen. Martin Looney in what was then the costliest municipal race in state history. DeStefano spent $549,416.48 by Oct. 4 of 2001. He spent just a couple of thousand dollars less, $547,297.89, by Sept. 30 of this year.

The latest reports for Graves and Dawson, who dropped out of the race after losing the primary, were not available.