Scott Murphy can’t compete with Republican Challenger Chris Gibson on single donor support

By Sam Foster

It is instructive to watch Scott Murphy buy ad after ad about how he is closely tied to the district, yet it hasn't translated in donor support.

Scott Murphy's campaign shot from the hip last week when releasing preliminary fundraising numbers for the 3^rd quarter.  Murphy touted nearly $325k raised so far.  However, his press release was quite anemic as far as the details for his sources of funding.  Clearly, Murphy was looking to influence the media template with a message that his campaign had reclaimed momentum.

Turns out, Murphy's edge in fundraising is little more than politicking as his FEC report shows serious lack of voter support when compared to Republican challenger Chris Gibson's.  It turns out nearly half of this quarter's funding is from PACs, while Gibson nearly tripled the number of Scott Murphy's single donors by 937-322.

Via Chris Gibson's press release:

Gibson raised a total of $261,955.82 from across 949 donations, 937 of which were from individuals' contributions. Over 91% of all the individual contributions were from New York. The total amount raised by Gibson from individuals was $236,690.12 compared to Murphy's $183,645.79. The amount raised from New York individuals by Gibson was $206,815.90 compared to Murphy's $101,837.00.  Congressman Murphy raised 43% of his total contribution, $141,103.81, from PACs, political parties and sitting members of Congress campaign organizations.  That is compared to $25,265.70, or less than 10% of total contributions, collected by Gibson from like organizations across 12 donations.

 
It means little to have a large campaign war chest if the voters aren't on your side.  I'd take a large number of single donors over media marketing any day.