Republican Rob Astorino’s struggling campaign for governor raised a mere $2.4 million dur💧ing the first six months of the year — just 7 percent of the $33 million Gov. Cuomo had in the bank in January, The Post has learned.
Astorino, who started his campaign six months ago with a tiny $1 million war chest left over from his re-election campaign for Westchester County eꦅxecutive, received most of his meager haul from small contributors from all of the state’s 62 countieไs — some 4,000 donors, a campaign source said.
“The median conꦏtribution was $75,’’ said the source.
That was in sharp contrast to Democrat Cuomo, who received a small number of huge contributions from individuals and groups tied to big✨ business and labor, many of which have business with the state.
A source close to Astorino, who trail🌃s Cuomo badly in the polls, insisted that despite the campaign’s anemic bank account, “We like where we are because fund-raising has really picke🐠d up in the past month, with about $1 million coming in the past four weeks.
“We also like the fact that we’re supported by real middle-class New Yorkers giving $25 or $50 or $100 at a ti🅺me. We’ll never match Cuomo’s fat-cat numbers, but we know with certainty that we’ll have enough to compete and win,’’ the source continued.
Astorino and his aides, however, had 🐼hoped t꧙heir fund-raising would have been much stronger.
And they have bitterly complained that potenti🎉al contributors have been scared off by fears of Cuomo retaliatiℱng.
Astorino and Cuomo must officially disclose their updated campaign-finance information by Tuesday 💙to the state Board of Elections.
State Republicans, including Astorino, have said that they would need at least $15 million to wage a successful campaign against Cuomo, a goal that, as of now,🐟 appears unlikely to be met. GOP strategists are hopeful, however, that national, conservative-oriented super PACs with large sums of money will become involved in the race on Astorino’s behalf.
One of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s jobs as this year’s head of the Republican Governors Association is to help elect more GOP governors, but don’t tell that to pe🐠ople working on Astorino’s campaign.
“Chris Christie has done diddly squat to help the Astorino folks,’’ said a highly knowle👍dgea🦹ble Republican insider.
“Either Christie has formed an unholy alliance with Cuomo in the aftermath of the Bridgegate scandal or he’s preoccupied with ꦡrunning for president. Either way, New York Republicans aꦅre noticing it and they’re unhappy about it,’’ the insider continued.
Last fall The Post disclosed that Christie had encouraged Astorino to challenge Cuomo and pled𝔍ged his support — but that was before the politically ꩲdamaging Bridgegate — which involved closing down George Washington Bridge lanes in Fort Lee to retaliate against a Christie political foe.
A prominent New York De♔mocratic operative, meanwhile, told The Post, “The word on the inside of Democratic circles is th🍨at Christie has been working to help Cuomo, perhaps by providing some strategic advice.’’