While Sen.-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat, released her campaign finance total for the end of November of $29.4 million last week, her Republican opponent, Rep. Rick Lazio, released his report Tuesday, which revealed that he spent $39.6 million and his campaign is more than $3 million in debt.
The second-most expensive race was in the New Jersey contest of Democrat Jon Corzine and Republican Rep. Bob Franks, who spent a total of $67.7 million. Corzine, a former Wall Street financier, spent more than $61 million, most of it from his own fortune. Franks spent more than $6 million.
However, the New York race outdistances the New Jersey race even further when the funds raised by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani are added. The Republican mayor began raising funds to face the first lady in the spring of 1999. He raised about $19 million, some of which was returned to the donors when he dropped out of the race on May 19, after he revealed he had prostate cancer and was separating from his wife, Donna Hanover.
In any event, the New York Senate contest broke all records for funds raised. The man who broke all kinds of fund-raising records for Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential race also headed the fund raising for Hillary Clinton's bid for elective office.
Terence McAuliffe, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., who called himself the first lady's campaign-finance quarterback, said on July 7, 1999, he expected Hillary Clinton would need to raise $20 million. That was $4 million more than Brooklyn Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer spent on his Senate race to unseat Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, who spent $24 million. Neither the first lady nor the president contributed any of their own money to the campaign, much of which was raised outside New York.
Lazio, who will be out of work in January when he loses his Long Island congressional seat, which he resigned to run for the Senate, raised most of his money through fund raisers and direct mail to Republicans and conservatives nationwide who were unfavorable to Hillary Clinton. Almost all of the funds raised went toward television commercials.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International.
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