By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — With less than a month to go before the Democratic primary, Attorney General candidate Kathleen Rice is continuing to pound her competitors in the race to raise funds.
The Nassau County District Attorney raised nearly $620,000 over the past month, pushing her war chest total to $4.4 million, according to campaign finance disclosure reports filed with the State Board of Elections Friday.
Rice's next-closest challenger, State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, raised less than half that amount — $260,000 — leaving him with $2.2 million to spend on the race.
Former federal prosecutor Sean Coffey took in only $48,000, but thanks to another $1 million loan to himself, he now has over $3 million to spend. Coffey, who has come under scrutiny for making political contributions to officials who later did business with his law firm, lent an additional $2 million to his campaign in July.
Coffey has significantly outspent his Democratic challengers in the race so far, shelling out $824,000 on campaign items including TV ads and various political consulting firms in both New York and Washington, D.C. That's four times more than the average spent by the other candidates.
Former Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo came in third in the fundraising race with $109,000 raised over the past month, boosting his bank to $1.6 million.
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, meanwhile, received $47,000 in contributions, but also transferred $966,637.94 from his Assembly campaign account, pushing his war chest to $1.5 million.
The Republican challenger, Richmond County District Attorney Dan Donovan, had $500,000 on hand as of July 16.
The latest numbers closely mirror July's tallies, with Rice and Schneiderman in the lead. Coffey's fundraising power appears to have slipped since July.
The Rice campaign touted the totals.
“What we are seeing here is that as voters begin to pay more attention to this race, the momentum is swinging our way and the race is breaking towards the candidate most capable of cleaning up Albany, holding Wall Street accountable, and protecting New York families," Rice campaign manager Jeffrey Stein said in a statement.
Schneiderman's campaign, meanwhile, tried to focus attention on the senator's long list of supporters, which now includes former city comptroller and 2009 mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
"Considering he has assembled by far the deepest and broadest coalition of progressive activists and organizations, will have the best ground game, and now has all the resources needed to win, Eric Schneiderman will be very tough to beat in this race," campaign spokesman James Freedland said in a statement.
A Quinnipiac poll released last month found that an overwhelming percentage of New Yorkers have no idea who the candidates are and that most don't ey know who they plan to vote for.
The race has even drawn international speculation, including from Ireland's largest betting service, Paddy Power. The online betting company is currently giving Rice 4-to-11 odds on winning the race, with Schneiderman at 4-to-1, Dinallo at 8-to-1, Donovan at 9-to-1, Brodsky at 10-to-1 and Coffey at 12-to-1.
The Democratic candidates will face off in the primary on Sept. 14.
