WASHINGTON – Rep. Brian Higgins launched an unprecedented fundraising blitz in the second quarter of the year, adding $438,441 to the campaign war chest he will use to ward off possible primary and general election challenges in a district that hasn't even been drawn up yet.
Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, collected more than twice as much money as he raised in the same period two years earlier, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Higgins' quarterly fundraising total was more than four times higher than that of his congressional neighbor, Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican.
Never an especially aggressive fundraiser, Higgins ramped up his efforts amid a complex political environment. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is charged with electing more Republicans to the House, announced in early May that it will target Higgins for defeat. He will run for reelection next year in a reconfigured district that quite possibly will include more Republicans than his current Buffalo-based district. And the defeat of Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown in June's Democratic primary shows that mainstream Democrats like Higgins can't presume they're safe from progressive primary challengers.
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Asked why Higgins ramped up his fundraising, his campaign spokesman, Chuck Eaton, mentioned redistricting and the GOP effort to target Higgins.
"We are always well-prepared for elections," Eaton said. "Why fundraise now? Because there's no time like the present. Why wait?"
Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, talks about new guidelines recently announced by CDC, and his hopes for opening the border.
Higgins raised about two-thirds of his money from individual donors, most of them from the Buffalo area. His list of donors reads like a who's who of Buffalo's political, legal and business establishments. He got money from prominent Democrats like former Buffalo Mayor Anthony M. Masiello and developer Howard Zemsky, but also from Republicans such as Anthony H. Gioia, a longtime GOP fundraiser and Higgins supporter.
About a third of Higgins' campaign cash came from political action committees. According to an analysis by Roll Call's Political MoneyLine, the bulk of his PAC money this year came from organizations connected with the finance and insurance industries or organized labor.
Higgins raised all that money even though no challengers have filed paperwork to run against him as of yet.
However, Justice Democrats – a progressive group allied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Bronx Democrat – tried to recruit a primary challenger to Higgins in 2020 and has already recruited opponents for several sitting Democrats.
And while Higgins has not faced a strong Republican challenger since his election to Congress in 2014, that could change after redistricting. New York will lose a House seat based on 2020 census data, and the state Legislature will redraw the remaining 26 districts later this year or in early 2022. While it's impossible to know what those districts will look like, there's a consensus among political pros that Higgins' heavily Democratic district may pick up some Republican areas starting in the 2022 election.
Any challenger will face a candidate with a big head start. Higgins' spring fundraising push swelled the amount of money in his campaign war chest to $1.45 million.
"That's a good position for us to be in on June 30," Eaton said. "We're going to try to keep it going for the rest of year as well."
Higgins' aggressive fundraising stood in strong contrast to what Jacobs did. He raised only $96,508 between April 1 and June 30, an unusually small amount for an incumbent Republican. In contrast, Rep. John Katko, a Syracuse-area Republican, pulled in $484,212. And Rep. Elise Stefanik, who represents the North Country and who chairs the House Republican Conference, raised $1.25 million.
Jacobs had only $190,206 in his campaign account as of June 30.
Asked about Jacobs' low fundraising total, his campaign consultant, Cam Savage, said: “It was just a year ago that Chris Jacobs won an unprecedented special election and competitive primary on the same day, proving again that he is a tireless campaigner and one of New York’s best fundraisers. There will be plenty of time for politics in the coming months, but right now Chris is focused on getting Americans back to work, expanding rural broadband, reopening the U.S.-Canadian border and reversing the Biden administration’s immigration crisis on the southern border.”
There are also other reasons why Jacobs may have raised so little money. He represents a heavily Republican district that could grow even more Republican after redistricting, meaning he may be less likely to draw a serious challenge than Higgins will be in 2022. Jacobs is wealthy, meaning he could always fall back on his own money to fund his reelection. And his refusal to vote to certify Democrat Joe Biden's election as president may have dampened his fundraising, especially given that some corporate PACs swore off giving money to candidates who did that.
The June 30 FEC reports and other documents filed with the agency also showed:
• Rep. Joe Morelle, a Democrat from Irondequoit whose district could be gerrymandered into the Buffalo region during redistricting, raised $163,225 for the quarter and had $343,450 on hand as of June 30.
• Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican who announced his retirement amid allegations that he made improper advances on a female lobbyist, returned $202,192 in campaign donations but was still left with $158,764 on hand.
• Joe Sempolinski of Canisteo, a former Reed aide who now serves as Steuben County Republican chairman, filed paperwork to run for Reed's seat in 2022 – although that seat could be eliminated in redistricting. State Sen. George Borrello, a Republican from Silver Creek, is also seen as a potential congressional candidate if Reed's Southern Tier district survives reapportionment.
