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Donovan Has Raised $419K More Than Gentile in Fight for Congress Seat

By Nicholas Rizzi | April 30, 2015 8:18am
 District Attorney Dan Donovan raised $419,000 more than Councilman Vincent Gentile in the special election for U.S. House of Representatives.
District Attorney Dan Donovan raised $419,000 more than Councilman Vincent Gentile in the special election for U.S. House of Representatives.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

STATEN ISLAND — District Attorney Dan Donovan has a sizable lead over his Democratic opponent Vincent Gentile when it comes to funds in the race to fill Michael Grimm's empty congressional seat, campaign finance records show.

The Republican has raised a total of $614,975 from private donors, political action committees and the National Republican Party, according to Federal Election Commission Records.

Donors listed include former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and two candidates who tried to replace him on the Republican ticket, John Catsimatidis and Joseph Lhota.

"We're proud to have received such an outpouring of support from so many people who want to see Dan as their next congressman," said Jessica Proud, the candidate's spokeswoman.

Gentile has raised $195,724 — $419,251 less than Donovan. While the district attorney got $5,000 from his national party committee, Gentile got $75, finance records show.

A spokesman for Gentile, Justin Brannan, said they're running a "grassroots" campaign in advance of Tuesday's special election and aren't concerned about being outspent by Donovan.

"We are running exactly the campaign we want to run," Brannan said.  

"We're not relying on shadowy corporate donors, super PACs or people like the Koch Brothers to get our message out. This campaign has been a grassroots effort from day one and that is something we are very proud of."

While Gentile did not have any former mayors on his donation list, he did get $1,000 from radio personality Elvis Duran.

A third candidate in the race, James Lane, who is running on the Green Party ticket, raised $11,095, according to finance records.

In addition to private donations, Donovan banked $193,700 from super PACs — most of which were based outside of New York, according to finance records.

The current campaign fundraising is unlike the race between the disgraced Grimm and Democrat Domenic Recchia, who raised nearly 11 times more than Grimm.

Donovan, Lane and Gentile will face off in a special election on Tuesday, May 5 for the congressional seat representing Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn.

It's been empty since January, when Grimm resigned from his post after pleading guilty to tax evasion. Grimm is expected to be sentenced on June 6.