Over $100K spent in county exec race
Spending is picking up in the race for Monroe County executive.
The two major party candidates for the job spent about $114,000 between July and September, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.
Republican Cheryl Dinolfo raised about $156,500, spent $65,100 and had roughly $287,200 left in her campaign account at the end of the reporting period, which ended 32 days before the Nov. 3 election.
Democrat Sandra Frankel raised about $77,200 in the same period, spent $49,300 and had $119,700 left over.
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Green Party candidate Rajesh Barnabas said he had no fundraising to report.
In terms of spending, this election has been much quieter than other recent races for the county's top elected job. In 2011, when County Executive Maggie Brooks fended off a challenge from Frankel, Brooks' campaign alone spent more than twice as much as Frankel and Dinolfo did in the same reporting period this year.
Frankel, however, is raising and spending more than she had at this point in 2011.
Like it or not, political contributions often fuel campaigns and what voters hear about the candidates.
The financial disclosures show both major party candidates using campaign cash to shape their messages. The single largest payment from both Frankel and Dinolfo's campaigns went to public relations firms.
Dinolfo paid Cause + Effect Strategy and Marketing in Henrietta about $16,000. Frankel paid about $10,000 to Global Strategy Group, which has worked on a number of Democratic campaigns in New York.
Meanwhile, the Monroe County Democratic Committee raised about $12,900, spent $4,700 and had $33,200 on hand at the end of the reporting period.
The Monroe County Republican Campaign Committee raised about $6,900, spent $5,000 and had a war chest of $470,200 on hand.
DRILEY@Gannett.com