Oct. 21—CONCORD — Republican candidate for Governor Kelly Ayotte of Nashua has already broken the record for campaign spending for New Hampshire office.
Ayotte had spent $15.5 million as of Oct. 15, just above the previous mark set by then-Republican candidate for governor Craig Benson in 2002 when he spent $15 million when he first ran for governor.
The difference between the two candidates was that high-tech millionaire businessman Benson self-financed his race with $11 million of his own money.
Ayotte, a former U.S. senator, received individual and Republican party committee donations to finance her campaign.
The Republican Governors Association’s political action committee, Live Free PAC, has given Ayotte’s campaign $12 million, which is also a record for support from any party committee in a corner office race.
This has helped give Ayotte a more than 3-1 war chest lead for Democratic nominee Joyce Craig of Manchester.
Ayotte had raised $17.5 million and still had nearly $2 million in the bank as of October 15.
To date, Craig had raised nearly $5.8 million and spent $5.3 million, leaving her with about $500,000 left.
The Democratic Governors Association gave Craig a campaign donation of $932,000 last month and a group known as Democratic Action – New Hampshire, based in Washington, D.C., gave her another $300,000.
The New Hampshire Republican State Committee spent another $1.9 million on ads supporting Ayotte, while the New Hampshire Democratic Party spent $2 million on ads on Craig’s behalf.
Ayotte may have funded some of those GOP commercials. Her campaign has given $212,300 to the Republican State Committee since winning the Sept. 10 primary against former Senate President Chuck Morse of Salem.
Ayotte says that parties cancel each other out
Put New Hampshire First, the PAC for the Democratic Governors Association, has raised and spent nearly $9 million, almost all of it on attack ads against Ayotte.
Last week, Ayotte told reporters that political party committee spending in this race has offset each other.
“That seems like a bit of a proxy fight, but the truth is this race has always been about what the people of New Hampshire want and not about political parties,” Ayotte said.
“The voters will decide whether they want higher taxes and less freedom.”
On Monday, Craig attended a fundraiser in western Massachusetts with Maura Healey, the state’s Democratic governor.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear told Craig supporters in Manchester last week that volunteer work and inexpensive TV ad campaigns are making a difference, just as they did when he first won office in 2019, with an average of 1.5 voters per district.
“That’s the last name on a (door-to-door) walksheet, the last phone call through a phone bank, the effort public educators made was the difference for me and it will be the difference for the next governor, Joyce Craig,” Beshear said.
Since September 11, Ayotte’s campaign has spent $7.3 million on TV ads, while Craig’s campaign has spent $2.6 million during the same period.
The race is not likely to set the record for spending on any campaign in New Hampshire.
In 2016, then-Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan and Ayotte spent a combined $38 million in the Senate race that Hassan narrowly won.
Outside groups in that race spent another $94 million for or against both Hassan and Ayotte.
Other individual donors to Ayotte’s campaign for governor included U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and his wife Ann ($10,000), former House Speaker Bill O’Brien of Manchester ($2,000), the Republican Attorneys General Association ($25,000), former U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, RN.H. ($5,000), Ski NH PAC ($2,000) and Lukas Walton of Bentonville, Arkansas, the billionaire grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton ($5,000).
A women’s group organized a fundraiser in San Francisco for Craig last month, and the campaign received 58 checks from residents of that West Coast city and 13 from Los Angeles.
Craig’s West Coast donors included iconic film director Steven Spielberg ($5,000) and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw ($5,000), along with retired singer Nancy Sinatra ($500) and award-winning TV series writer and producer David Mandel ($500).
klandrigan@unionleader.com
